Matchmaking Mishaps
by SamGreg
Summary: What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore. CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.[A/N] Ryan is kinda OOC for entertainment purposes.
1. Eavesdropping And Inaction

_**Matchmaking Mishaps**_

**What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.**

**CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.**

**Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.**

**[A/N] Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :)**

**_CHAPTER ONE_**

**_Eavesdropping and Inaction_**

Ryan strolled through the hallways of the Aqua Base, thoroughly bored. He idly noticed he was passing his sister's room when he heard the suspicious sound of...was that giggling? His curiosity piqued; Ryan glanced around before crouching and pressing his ear to the door. As he tried to listen to his sister (he's not really eavesdropping, per say; Dana was always going on about how he should listen to her when she speaks and, so, that was what he was doing. Being a good brother), he was interrupted.

"What are you doi-mpf!" The Red Lightspeed Ranger was abruptly cut off from his question as the Titanium Ranger quickly took hold of his wrist, yanked him down to where he was crouched on the floor and covered his mouth with a glare and a shushing noise. His eyes darted conspiratively to the porthole above them and the rest of the hallway. Once he seemed assured with the fact that no one was going to jump out of anywhere, he moved his hand away from Carter's face.

"I'm trying to figure out what they're up to; there's something weird going on in there, " Ryan whispered, fully serious.

Carter looked at him with a raised brow and a slightly incredulous expression, "The only thing I hear is giggling."

"Exactly! " Carter rolled his eyes, shaking his head slightly. "Come on, fire truck! Don't you want to know what's going on in there? It's like a prime..research opportunity!" Ryan whispered with wild hand gestures. "Besides, you can't leave or you'll blow my cover and we'll have angry females to answer to." They both stilled for a moment before shuddering simultaneously at the thought.

Once satisfied the red clad man was in on his idea, Ryan returned to pressing his ear to the door. He was certain it was only Kelsey and Dana in the room; he was also certain that they were talking about a mission they had been on a few days prior. Ryan had been unable to help in that particular mission, being forced by his father to watch the rangers on screens; Carter had been absent from the beginning of the fight, arriving just in time to stop the demon striking his unmorphed sister with a sword which would have surely killed her with a single blow... Carter Grayson, man of impeccable timing.

"He was your knight in lycra-"

"Kelsey! Watch what you're implying there!" Ryan could hear the clear note of embarrassment in Dana's voice which had him wondering what she was talking about; he was no expert on emotions and feelings, but he couldn't help but ponder whether Dana was trying to hide something.

"Oh come on Dana, its obvious to any idiot that you like him!" Him? Who could be him?- Well, Ryan could quickly deduce it down to one of the rangers, excusing himself due to reasons of an incestuous nature which left three people: Chad Lee, Joel Rawlings and Carter Grayson.

"Maybe... I guess so- but it doesn't matter does it? He's too in love with his job to notice me, I'm like a little sister or best friend-" A smirk crossed his face as it became clear who the man in question was; in love with his job? Like a best friend or brother to Dana? It had to be the valiant leader; the man crouching with an awkward expression plastered on his face, to Ryan's left... Carter Grayson.

A grin slowly erupted and overtook his face as his gaze locked on to the fire fighter conspiratorially.

Carter's eyes narrowed and his voice was wary, "What..?"

"So, Mr Knight-in-Red-Lycra," Carter's cheeks reddened.

"How do you feel about medics in pink lycra?" Carter stuttered for a moment before straightening his face and asking neutrally, "What do you mean?"

"What do you mean 'what do I mean'?!" Ryan whispered angrily. He gestured and stuttered furiously at the door, "Come on! How more obvious can it be?! She all but yelled out her undying love for you to the city! What more do you need?!"

"I didn't hear any specification-"

"Let me break it down further; we know its a ranger, clearly not me because that is just plain gross, its not Joel because he's busy obsessing over Angela. That leaves Chad and-" Ryan poked the man in the chest, "You. Now, who saved my sister today?"

"Me but-"

"Ding, ding, ding- we have a winner." Ryan whispered in a sarcastic tone, "So now I ask again, how do you feel about medics in pink lycra?" Carter's neutral face broke out into a tiny smile that he attempted to hide by turning to face the opposite direction, his cheeks still acutely red which subsequently led to a little bit of excitement bubbling inside of Ryan. "So what are you going to do about it?"

The fireman froze, every muscle in his body tensing at the question. Ryan scoffed as he realised why Carter had this reaction, "You're not scared of her are you? She's a whole head shorter than you, like 110 pounds and is eighteen! What could she do?!"

"I'm not scared of Dana." Carter placidly stated, keeping his gaze averted from Ryan, tempted to rise from the floor and walk away- but he didn't fancy being tackled to the floor which would definitely alert both girls they'd been eavesdropping only leading to an ear bashing from Kelsey and awkwardness around Dana for a few weeks- months even.

"Then why?" Ryan's voice straining like a child pleading for the flashiest toy in the shop, "You like her and she likes you! This is where you step up, date, fall in love, get married, have chil-"

"It doesn't work like that Ryan." Carter's cheeks were only further reddening but Ryan couldn't understand why. He furrowed his dark blond brows in thought, concentration etched on every feature of his face.

"That's how it worked in Cinderella."

"Cinderella is a kids thing Ry. You need to stop watching that film, mice don't talk."

"You like her, she likes you!" That came out louder than Ryan had expected; lowering his voice significantly, he added, "Its simple!"

"Let's look at the key factors. One, I'm twenty three. She is eighteen."

"What's that saying? Y'know the one about age. Age is but a-" Ryan waved his arm around in the air as he attempted to recall the phrase but it wouldn't return to him. "Let's just say a jellyfish." That definitely wasn't it, he didn't need Carter to smirk to realise he'd got it wrong. 'Age is but a jellyfish' did sound a lot more entertaining however and Ryan was sure he could make it catch on with the other Rangers. Jellyfish.

"She's going away to medical school. I'm a firefighter."

"Sounds like the perfect love story to me-"

"And have you met your dad? He's my boss." Ryan rolled his eyes. He should've realised this a lot sooner;_ Authority_. Conforming as per usual. Did Carter have to be so work minded? Had he not realised that perhaps dating his sister would help get said sister off Ryan's back constantly?! _God_, how selfish can you get?!

"Dude, I'm just hearing loads of useless excuses. Dad likes you and he'd like to see Dana happy!"

"You like sayings right? Have you heard of 'don't date the bosses daughter' 'cause that is a very popular one with me."

Ryan glared at the man who finally built up the courage to look at him, trying to think up a polite way to word 'well now you're just being an arsehole' but seeing as nothing came to mind... "Well now you're just being an arsehole." Carter just shrugged, not too bothered with Ryan's lame attempt to upset him, "A dream's a wish your heart makes!"

"I'm actually going to break your video. The obsession is awful." Carter rose to his feet, not caring any longer whether either of the girls were aware of the pair looming outside Dana's bedroom door. "And she didn't actually say she likes me in that way therefore-" he raised his hands up in a mock surrender, "Out of my hands."

As he turned to walk away however, Ryan jumped him and both hurdled down onto the ground with a painful (and loud) bang.

"Man up and tell her!" Ryan shouted, straddling Carter to keep him pinned to the ground, "A dreams a wish!"

"Ryan get off!" Carter squirmed against Ryan's hold but couldn't wriggle free as Ryan was definitely a lot stronger than he looked.

"Tell Dana-"

"Tell me what?" Both men stopped mid-scramble. Slowly, they turned their heads in unison to face the bedroom door where both Kelsey and Dana were now stood outside, arms crossed over their chests and eyes narrowed as they flicked between the two men. Ryan looked back at Carter to shoot him a panicked look before turning back around to face his little sister with a calm, 'in-control' smile on his face. He scooted off Carter, who rapidly sat up with cheeks flushing with embarrassment. "If you guys wanted time alone to do... _That_-" a disapproving glint in her eyes but a soft smile playing across her pale pink lips, "I suggest not in the middle of the corridor in the open." Yeap, definitely the Captains daughter.

"Don't be so juvenile short stack." Ryan stated- word of the day, ten points! "We were just..."

"Spying on me?" A golden eyebrow raised up but her cheeks grew slightly pink whilst Kelsey for once looked slightly ashamed.

"Nuh-na-nuh-no-" Carter spluttered, Dana's gaze now on him which only equalled to Carter becoming more unable to speak or think. She knew she'd caught them and worst still, she knew they had heard everything! What lie could they create to get out of this one?! "We were just- Ryan he... He lost his... Contact lens?" Yeah, that works, "We were just looking for it."

Dana tilted her head to the left, eyebrows furrowed into a line and a small crease (from concentration) formed just above them on her forehead. "He doesn't wear contact lenses."

"Shows how much attention you take of me." Ryan mocked hurt but he knew she wasn't fooled. Contact lenses? Really Carter? Dana only did his eye test for him last week!

"Look, like Dana said you two, 'if you wanted to do that alone the hall isn't the best place'." Kelsey grinned, stepping over Ryan's legs to get past before looking back at Dana, "C'mon, we should get going if we want to catch the movie."

Dana nodded before she stepped over Ryan (who did attempt to trip her up but instead she jumped over his legs and landed next to Kelsey surprisingly gracefully), "Your room is down the hall Ry, maybe take him back there." Both girls giggled as they walked off down the corridor toward the main control centre.

"Your room is down the hall Ry, maybe take him there." Ryan mimicked in a ridiculously high voice before he turned back to Carter, "Seriously? Contact lenses?!"

"Did you want me to tell her the truth?!"

"Yes with the added words 'I like you too. Marry me?'"

"Marry me-"

"Not to me, to her. You're not my type."

"Marry me?! You don't just say that sort of thing!" Carter scoffed as he rose to his feet again, "It's best if we just forget what we overheard."

"You coward!"

"Maybe, but its for the best. Its too complicated." Carter walked away, in the opposite direction to the girls, and into his quarters before Ryan had a chance to protest. How was it so difficult?! 'I like you too.' That isn't complicated at all! Ryan could easily say that to the next person who walked past- in fact he would've had it not been Chad who was descending up the corridor toward Rescue Ops, throwing a puzzled look at Ryan as he went. Saying he liked Chad may stir up a bit of confusion.

"Well, Carter Grayson, if you can't man up and tell Dana how you feel- I'll help nudge you along."

* * *

_**[A/N]**_

_**GREG: Soooo, here is what we promised:P Like, Carter and Dana are the main-ish couple we focus on purely because... They're my favourite, whatever Sam says is lies.**_

**SAM: Bitch please, it's actually 'cause there is so much we can do with them character-wise since they're so under-developed. **

_**GREG: AND because they're my favourite. Sam is right, they're terribly under-developed and, to be honest, the whole of Lightspeed were. The character development sucked and the plots didn't really give the actors much to work with so they did amazing for what they had; trust me, I'm a drama student. Regardless, they are my favourite season and Dana, Carter and Ryan are my favourite Rangers probably and Sam likes Ryan and Chad so *shrugs* she doesn't care about Dana and Carter though, well didn't at first, I think I converted her.**_

**SAM: Not necessarily, I didn't care much about them since they were like an obvious 'they're gonna get together' couple but the show was like 'naaaaah mate I'll be vague and fuck with Greg's mind'.**

_**GREG: And the fact they returned for the Legendary Battle supports my theory they're married. Screw Saban, Dana and Carter are married. End of. They are in love and happily married. **_

**SAM: *scoffs and laughs* Ha ha ha-happily!**

_**GREG: NO SPOILERS! Anyway, so major couple in our series. But they were really rejected in the show I think so it's nice because there aren't many Lightspeed/Dana and Carter stories which is sad. They were a great couple... Who are now married HAPPILY. Okay?! Sam's snickering right now... Majorly Eeesssh. SHUT UP! I'm doing this note on my own apparently.**_

**S****AM: *Manic laughter***

_**GREG: She's falling apart so.. Just me I guess. We should probably note that we did kinda revamp Ryan a bit... In the show he didn't have much of a role because he shouldn't have existed which is depressing; we've adjusted his personality a bit. He was raised by demons from the age of six so we figured he would be a little more 'naïve' in contrast to Dana even though she is younger. Please don't flame because of our adaptation. Sam has finished laughing now, shall I let her type?! No? Sweet. XD  
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for Ryan's crazy plans! Sam? Any last words?  
**_

**SAM: ...I legitly have no clue why I was having a breakdown but I'm much calmer now. I still want a nap but Greg says I can nap on the train; we're going to a really big library with Chuck (our buddy and beta reader who is not doing her job right now-**

_**GREG: Or ever.**_

**SAM: But we love her anyway; because we thought why not, it'll be fun- just, ya know, cas'.**

**_GREG: So, we'll update this one whenever we have a chapter written- it's not a regular update thing so we'll try and update every other week... If I can get Sam to write. *Cough* Now *Cough*_**

**SAM: Anyway, hope you enjoy Ryan's ridiculousness and review, yeah?**

_**GREG: SEE YOU! **_

**SAM: Peace out!**


	2. Prep Work Needed

_**Matchmaking Mishaps**_

**What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.**

**CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.**

**Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.**

**[A/N] Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :)**

_**CHAPTER TWO**_

_**Prep Work Needed**_

"But I don't understand." Kelsey rolled her crystal blue coloured eyes, exchanging an irritated look with Joel before she returned her attention to the oldest Mitchell sibling.

"I thought we'd been over this Ryan! What's not to get?!"

"Why would they want to do that?!"

"Because they like each other man." Joel blurted. Chad, who stood solemnly in the corner, nodded in agreement, "But they're both too awkward to admit it."

"I've been trying to get her to confess it since we joined Lightspeed but she just blushes and mutters stuff." Kelsey added, yet Ryan still looked completely horrified- but what about cooties?! "Okay." Kelsey withdrew a video tape from her backpack, passing it over to Ryan who stared down at it. 'Cinderella'? How is this any use?! "Watch this, it'll explain all..."

**ONE HOUR LATER**

"Oh. My..." Ryan sat directly in front of the TV screen in his room, crouched like a frog; the room devoid of any light besides the porthole on the door that led to the hallway, and the TV screen. "This explains EVERYTHING! Dana is Cinderella and Carter is Prince Charming!" Ryan paused a moment, another realisation coming to mind. "Why does she get to be Cinderella?! I wanted to be Cinderella!"

"Excuse me?!" Ryan looked to the door to see Carter, who had decided to make his appearance known. The fireman stared, shocked, at the implications of Ryan's yelling. "Y-You want to be the Cinderella t-to my P-Prince Charming?!"

"You're not supposed to be in here!"

"I'm sorry Ryan but I don't like you in that way,"

"GET OUT!" The conversation ended with Ryan throwing a shoe at Carter and the latter ducking out of the room, airborne shoe hitting the automatic door instead. Ryan turned back to his frog-crouched position in front of the TV screen, adopting a thinking pose as he did. "Hmmmm...I suppose I can let Dana be Cinderella this time 'cause it makes sense with Carter being Prince Charming...waaaaiiitt does that mean I'm one of the ugly stepsisters? No, no, I'm trying to help them get together... Ooh! I know! I am the skinny mouse! Kelsey can be the fat mouse, Joel can be the bird and Chad can be the broom! And Dad..is the evil stepmother...? Huh. And... Oh my gosh Angela is the cat! You know, I'm actually not that surprised." He focused on the screen again and watched as Cinderella placed her foot in the glass slipper.

A determined smirk grew on his lips. "I am going to get you two, come what may, I won't back down."

* * *

_**[A/N]**_

_**GREG: So, a short and sweet chapter to explain Ryan's Cinderella references and to introduce the story; and its adorable! Oh, I forgot last time to fangirl over the cover... I seriously love it :3 Dana's all cute and then Carter is smelling her hair like a stalker... Bad photo timing XD**_

**SAM: True. Also, I love Ryan and his Cinderella obsession c: Okay, so big thank you to those who reviewed, followed and faved; CarterlovesDana, grandprincessanastasiaromanov5, Agent Gibbs, Star Writer 0303, kat183 and .5! **

_**GREG: And to CarterlovesDana; yes, they shouldn't have been eavesdropping and Carter's awkwardness is adorable- it gets worse, trust us. Legendary Battle; they are so married. **_

**SAM: Most likely with 'a few' kids *sneaky side glance to Greg*- I'm glad it wasn't just us who figured they would be.**

_**GREG: Ryan would make an 'interesting' uncle... The kids would be able to quote Cinderella...**_

**SAM: Pfft yah and other things...*another sneaky side glance to Greg* Wow, we're doing a lot of hinting right now.**

_**GREG: And in the other chapter... 'Happily married' *Side glance smirk***_

**SAM: Tch yeah. Anywho, I do hope you enjoy this mini chapter!**

_**GREG: And keep watching out for the next chapter... Though I doubt it'll be up for like two weeks *Blatant glare at Sam* we're writing Chapter Four... But Sam is easily distracted so, we'll see XD**_

**SAM: *sleepy stretch then slams Pringle's down*...Greg just mentioned that it seems like we're always eating when we're writing these authors notes...I guess it's just snacking work *leshrugs***

_**GREG: Today Pringles, Monday cookies! Anyway, adios and stuff...**_

**SAM: Ciao~!**

**And remember-****Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :)**


	3. Plan A- Attempt To Capture

_**Matchmaking Mishaps**_

**What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.**

**CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.**

**Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.  
**

**[A/N] Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :)**

_**CHAPTER THREE**_

_**Plan A- Attempt To Capture**_

Ryan scanned down the list of plans he had in the back of his new notepad (okay, so it was Dana's one... She had loads anyway! What would one missing do? He'd made his own by adding silver dots onto the pink and red swirled design, she couldn't claim it as hers.) He'd made it up to 'Plan P' and now, it was time to start.

He could see two set backs with Plan A; firstly, how could he keep Dana in a storage cupboard? Secondly, how could he get Carter into said storage cupboard with Dana? And Finally, how would he keep them both in there, together, without getting suspicious? Ryan could do it; he was Jaques after all, and Jaques was resilient so therefore Ryan was.

He waited by the storage cupboard and was pleasantly surprised when Dana came along minutes after arriving. She met Ryan's gaze briefly with her own suspicious look and paused next to him.

"What are you doing?"

"Hiding from Angela; blew up a prototype and now she wants my blood." A very convincing lie if he didn't say so himself. "What's up with you face ache?"

She narrowed her azure eyes at him, huffing impatiently, "I can't find my notebook- it had all my exam notes in!" Ryan slid the notebook into his jacket; well she should clearly label any important stuff! How was he supposed to know?! "If I don't find it, I may as well just quit the course!"

"Did you leave it at school?"

"No, I ran all the way there to check! And Kelsey checked the gallery for me." She genuinely looked upset about it; Jesus, it was only like thirty pages of notes!

"Well, what did it look like?"

"It was a hard back A5 notepad, the cover had pink and red on it- my name was on the back."

"Y'know, I think I saw Angela put it in the cleaning supply closet earlier-"

"The cleaning supply closet?" Dana looked at the door before turning back to Ryan, "You're kidding me Ry?"

"Nope, near the top." He pushed her towards it, "You search around and I'll get Carter to check the top shelf."

Dana didn't question the logic, pressing her key card to the pad whilst mumbling on about _'Angela being "the greatest mind of her generation" my ass.'_

"Totally, that woman." Dana went in and after the door shut, Ryan looked at the keypad- he had no idea what wires to cut but he had time as Carter was yet to appear... Hmmm that looked pretty enough!

"Ryan?"

"Hey Fire Truck, I was wondering when I'd see you!"

"Whhhyyyy?"

"Relax, Dana wanted you to help her look for something or the other in the supply closet," he gestured.

"Why don't you?"

"Because I have better things to do,"

"What, and I don't?"

"Not if Dana's involved and you freaking know it, " he said with a knowing, accusatory cock of his brow; clearly that wasn't clarifying enough for him. Ryan sighed, leaning in toward the towering giant, "Look, honestly- I can't see the top two shelves. She needs you for your height."

"Why didn't she just ask herself?"

"Do you think I can read my sister?! Females are beyond me as it is but she is a completely different individual! If I couldn't remember Mom being pregnant with her, I'd swear she was an alien. Now; get in the closet with my sister." Ryan forced the door open, and he could see Dana knelt down checking through a cardboard box, "Carter's here to help!" He pushed the man in before Dana could respond, allowing the door to shut again; okay, red wire goes there, green here and... Uh oh... Smoke. He ducked down, out of sight from the porthole with his ear pressed against the door- hmm, quite a familiar position to him.

"What is it you're looking for?" Was that a hint of awkwardness in his tone? Well, the cupboard was small but didn't that mean they'd have to be closer which is kinda what both wanted?! Why did Carter have to be so awkward?!

"Uh my notebook. It's pink with red swirls.. I'm sorry but what are you doing here?"

"Uh R-Ryan s-s-said yo-you wanted..uhm why are you looking here!?" He anxiously tried to divert the subject away from him, thankful for the lack of light allowing his burning face to go unnoticed.

"Because Angela." Dana glanced briefly back over her shoulder up at the giant, "Well, you've come at a good time because I need you."

"Uuuh..w-what..?"

Ryan face palmed and hissed at the fireman "Why are you questioning it!?"

"I can't see the top shelf, could you maybe look?" Ryan rolled his silver flecked pale blue eyes at the new found awkwardness in her tone, "I doubt she'd put it up there but you never know with 'Lightspeed's finest'." She rose to her feet, bumping into his broad chest as she did so- whoops, she forgot the space was incredibly tight. "Sorry." She blushed, "It's kinda... Small in here."

"Right...s-small.." Carter felt his throat become dry at the brush of contact, trying to press himself into the shelf behind him.

Dana moved to exit the cupboard, trying to give Carter ample room to check the shelf. She pressed at the door but it failed to respond. Taking her keycard to the scanner also had no effect so she tapped on the door, "Ry, you still there?" Before turning back to face Carter, who, it seemed from the limited light, was attempting to press himself flat against the shelf, "The doors not working."

"W-what? Um let me try.." he said, edging to the door whilst still pressing himsef back as far into the shelves and wall as he could. Once he reached, he repeated her actions and was faced with the same outcome. "Weird..it was working fine earlier..." he murmered. Dana moved closer to him whilst reaching for the door and he felt himself freeze and edge away again.

"Well, it's broken now and Ryan clearly has run off." She would try him on her morpher as she wasn't entirely sure the other Rangers were on the base, but she suspected that she would be met with _'GO AWAY! CINDERELLA IS MAKING HER BALL GOWN!_', so the action would be pointless. "And my book clearly isn't in here which means I am so screwed tomorrow." She leant against the wall, eyes closed in thought while planning out where to search next, "We're gonna be here a while..."

"Hm.." was all he could mutter out with his lips pressed together, clinging on to the shelf behind him as a lifeline. Meanwhile, Ryan snickered into his fist as he threw a handful of torn up wires behind him.

"Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you..." She trailed off slightly as she attempted to muster the courage to ask the question that Angela, her father and the other Ranger's have been pestering with lately, "I was wondering if-" Ryan held back a squeal; This had worked?! "You were okay..." He felt himself deflate, major let down little sis. "You've been acting weird and everyone's really worried."

"Weird? W-what do you m-mean? I'm f-fine."

"Well... You've been kinda- distant with everyone and very, for lack of a better term, out of it. If you're stressed you could always take a leave of absence or I am here to talk to; literally, here right now because there is no way-" she opened her eyes and bore witness to sight of him pinned to the wall, "Are you feeling claustrophobic?" She reached a hand out to his shoulder comfortingly, "it's fine, honest. You just need to distract yourself."

He tensed at the contact before nervously muttering out a "I-I-I'm t-t-totally f-fine, r-r-really.."

"I'm not convinced..." She mumbled under her breath, pulling her hand back as she physically felt his uncomfort; maybe it wasn't him not being okay, maybe she had done something to upset him and that was why he was being so awkward and uptight. "If you say so..." Sadness clear in her tone as that thought spiralled through her mind continuously.

"I'm-it's like-I'm not u-upset or s-stuff..it's uh I've um..been...a bit busy! Y-yeah busy.."

"Busy?" That was a tiny bit of a relief. "Well, if you're not busy tonight, we have a night off right? Well, I was meant to go to see a film with Kelsey and she got the tickets but then-" she waved off the story, "basically, she bailed on me so I have a spare ticket and its the last night... Do you want to go?"

"N-no-nat-bao-sil-wha-we-ni-ho-"

"No?" She didn't even attempt to hide the disappointment in her voice, he had flat out rejected her! "You don't want to go?"

"Na-it's-we-how-wai-"

"I don't understand." Ryan face palmed as his sister sounded at breaking point from both frustration and sadness; Carter Grayson must be the only man to decline an attempt at a date from the one girl he wanted to date. "You don't want to go? I can ask Chad, I guess..."

"He-wel-yo-wai-no-tha-" Dana glared in the direction of the man- this was just irritating her now. If she had annoyed him in anyway, she'd appreciate him telling the truth instead of this stupid babbling.

"Can you reply with words rather than sounds?!" He clamped down on his lip to stop more illegible nonsense from escaping and shook his head carefully. "I can hear your head moving but I can't see it." Ryan forced back all his bubbling anger for he could see himself punching the door or shouting _'Say yes!'_. Even as his sister sounded more and more hurt, he wanted to shoot Carter. Dana had thrown him a bone and given him the perfect opportunity to be alone _together_ and he was declining?!

"Look, whatever, I'll just ask Chad." Chad had to be the default guy, it always had to be Chad! This would be a down sight easier if it had been Chad Dana was crushing on then the big, babbling, stubborn giant in the closet with her! If it had been Chad, Ryan was sure they'd probably be married now because, from what he had heard, Chad fell hard and fast when it came to women... Or mermaids if Kelsey hadn't been pulling his leg about Marina.

Speaking of Chad...there he was nearing his crouching position. He hadn't noticed him yet. He should probably keep it that way. Ryan tuck and rolled before jumping onto his feet and making a run for it. _'I would be a totally badass spy.'_

Chad was just minding his business, thinking about starfish, when he heard what sounded like muffled voices from the empty hallway. _Hold the phone._ His head turned to look at the supply closet, sure that there was where the noise was coming from. Then he noticed the access pad was missing several wires and was smoking a little. He took a moment to analyse the wrecked machinery before coming to a solution. He gave the sliding, mechanical door a good, strong, even-footed, mid-mass, well-placed punch.

And it opened. Dana quickly and purposefully walked out, grabbed his arm and said "You're going with me," before dragging him away. Chad was quite confused. Carter slumped against the shelves into a sitting position with his head on his knee's.

"I'm fine I swear, besides the fact I've been trying to distant myself from you because I have this ridiculous crush on you which isn't appropriate. No, I'm not busy, I'd love to go with you but I'm too much of an idiot to be able to string that sentence together to tell you. Awesome job, Carter; awesome job(!)"

* * *

**[A/N]**

_**GREG: So Ryan's hare-brained schemes are underway! And Plan A is off with a bang. :3**_

**SAM: Yes, I suppose this is, more or less, the official start to the story- basically, the _actual_ content.**

_**GREG: You have to admit, Ryan's planning is down to a tee(!) Dude has thought of everything... Except for Chad coming along.. Damn it Chad!**_

**SAM: *lesigh* And poor Chad doesn't even know what's going on- he was just thinking about starfish.**

_**GREG: Poor, poor Chad... He has no idea what's coming. MWUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!**_

_**REVIEW REVIEW TIME!  
**_

_**GREG: So, Dash m**__**aster 48: We're glad that you like it so far and we're really happy that you gave us some suggestions but there is a couple of problems. We kinda have a Wild Force sort of this finished (well, it features a lot of Rangers) and two from Wild Force are reoccurring characters for us. (NO HINTS AS TO WHO!) Sam and I have this tiny dislike to Tommy, like he's great and a legend but we aren't into him enough for a whole story (He's a reoccurring character in our later stories however). The other three options is the main problem with us... Sam would love to do a Mack story but I don't know Mack or Antonio (I actually stopped watching at Wild Force but saw a bit of Ninja Storm) and she doesn't feel passionate about Noah (I watched Megaforce and Super Megaforce so know him xD). So thank you for the five suggestions and if you have any other suggestions of Rangers you'd like a story about then suggest them and we'll take them into consideration; if one catches our eye we will do it. :)**_

**SAM: Okay, my turn- CarterlovesDana: We're glad Ryan's Cinderella thing amused you but he will latch onto that because he maybe twenty something but he is mentally six. The demon kidnapping thing kinda stunted his cognitive development (pulling out my psychology terminology like, so proud of myself).**

_**GREG: I hate when she uses psychological terms... If I started busting out drama terms it'd be the same for her. MONOLOGUE, DUOLOGUE, STANSILAVSKI, BRECHT, FORUMN THEATRE, IMMERSIVE THEATRE!**_

_**GREG: So that's it for today...  
If you guys haven't yet, make sure to check out our other SOAverse stories and to make sure you don't miss any: follow, fave and stuff :'D We'll be updating our next SOA story on Friday so it might help to follow or favourite as authors so you never miss any part of the series. **_

**SAM: Actually, I do know what most of those things mean but yah, like Greg said, keep up to date with the SOAverse and we'll see ya later! Peace out.**

_**GREG: Bye!**_

_**And Remember-**_

**Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :)**

**(To address a review we received that we can't decide if it's a flame or not xD We thought we'd reiterate what we said in the first chapter).**


	4. Plan B- Breaking Up

_**Matchmaking Mishaps**_

**What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.**

**CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.**

**Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.**

**_CHAPTER FOUR_**

**_ Plan B: Breaking Up_**

Dana finished brushing her hair up into her attempt of a ponytail, almost fully prepared for the two hours intense training the day entailed. It had been a couple of days since the 'cupboard incident' and she had successfully managed to avoid Carter- granted, Kelsey was probably fed up with her asking what she had done to upset Carter originally and Chad was definitely confused as to why she wanted to hang around with him more often rather than with Carter but it was working so she was content enough.

She grabbed her morpher and replaced it before heading out of her room, almost tripping over the objects left in front of the door. Dana looked around suspiciously as she picked the two items up; a small box of cookies, which she would have to give to Kelsey considering her cookie ban, and a teddy bear clad in a tiny crimson tee-shirt which read 'I'm Sorry'. She turned the fuzzy bear over in her hand, she didn't need a note to know who had left this... Rolling her azure coloured eyes with a smile on her face, she placed them down on the shelf and left the room. He maybe a jerk at times, but Carter did know how to be adorable with his apologies.

* * *

"Well," Carter started to announce as the other Ranger's finished their warm ups, "The Captain said our hand to hand was getting sloppy-"

"He should try fighting a few batlings once in a while." Joel grumbled, wrapping his arms around both Kelsey and Dana's shoulder's to hold himself up, "We are in need of a break."

"We'll get one at Christmas." Dana pushed his arm off her with a scowl, whilst Kelsey added in, "Besides, we have Ryan's late birthday-" she instantly stopped as Dana glared at her; she'd kept the party quiet for so long that she wasn't letting Kelsey spoil it.

"For now, maybe just focus on combat. Sparring?" Carter changed the topic back quick enough to save Ryan catching on; okay, he had officially made it back on Dana's christmas card list. She gave him a smile and he looked away after giving one of his own.

"Normal pairs then?" Kelsey asked, pulling Joel away to one side.

"Wait!" Ryan grabbed Chad before he could go to Carter, "As much fun as it is beating Dana's ass, what if I want a change?"

"(A change?)" Dana placidly questioned, crossing her arms over her chest, "What do you mean?"

"What if I want to fight Chad for once?"

"Maybe next time Ryan." Carter retorted, "You're with Dana today."

"But I want Chad." To prove his point further, Ryan gripped Chad's arm tighter, "You have Dana, she's easy trust me-"

"Excuse me?" Dana indignantly said, "What do you mean by that?!"

"Not in the way you've taken it Dana." Joel shouted over which did earn a tiny smile from Carter, Chad on the other hand appeared terrified.

"Kick over head, bang to back as she's bent over, sweep to the legs- its not rocket science. You take Dana, I'll take Chad." And with that said, he dragged the asian man away. Carter turned slowly to face a quietly seething Dana with dread. The teen moved tersely to the sparring mat and Carter followed hesitantly behind her. Easy. She was most certainly not easy.

She'd show him.

And she did.

Carter was being beaten in like a punching bag- fists and kicks being thrown so rapidly, Carter barely had a chance to retaliate. Shots from her blaster being fired efficiently and precisely-until she misfired. Carter wasn't injured, nor was anyone else (though in her current mindset, she wouldn't have minded if Ryan had gotten hit); the same could not be said for the Rover. Dana threw her hand to her mouth as everyone turned to face the Rescue Rover, a giant dent staring back at them on the bonnet. She was screwed, totally screwed. The nearest person to hide behind happened to be Chad; she didn't want to be in Carter's firing line! The Pink Ranger grabbed onto Chad, hiding behind him with a squeal- _How did you break your leg Miss Mitchell? Oh, I shot a car and my friend decided to break me consequently!_

The tongue lashing she was expecting to hear- what everyone was expecting to hear- took it's time to happen, taking so long in fact that she poked her head around Chad's stiff body. Carter, clearly focussed on his breathing, appeared calm as he turned away from the car. "It's okay, we'll get Angela to look at it-"

"I didn't mean to- wait, what?!" She poked around from Chad's back, "It's okay?"

"Yes it's okay. It was an accident and those happen from time to time; it's not like it's the first or last time it'll take a...beating." His voice was calm and steady.

Dana bit her lip, surprised that he was so understanding but simultaneously scared and guilty so she stayed partly behind Chad. "Oh. Right. Um I really am sorry about that-"

"It's okay-"

"WHAT D'YOU MEAN 'IT'S OKAY'?!" Ryan interrupted, air quoting indignantly. "SHE ALMOST KILLED YOUR PRECIOUS CAR! HOW CAN YOU NOT BE RAGING AT HER RIGHT NOW!?"

"What, so you want me to be mad at her?"

"I'D PREFER IT IF YOU FELT SOMETHING!"

"All I'm feeling right now is annoyance with you-"

"NOT ME YOU EMOTIONALLY INEPT GIANT!"

"OH, I'm 'emotionally inept'?!" Whilst the argument between the two blonde men escalated, the other members of the team thought it wise to get out of the kill zone whilst they had the chance.

* * *

**[A/N]**

_**Greg: HEY! So because we're gonna be away for two weeks, we thought we'd post a chapter of this as well as our Mayla (Merrick&amp;Shayla story) to make up for it... It's school holidays so y'know what its like.. SO CARTER AND DANA... OTP. **_

**SAM: Yes, yes Greg, we know. Anyway, this was Plan B- did you enjoy Ryan's bitching at the end?**

_**GREG: Carter was very calm about the destruction of Bonnie... Oh dear.. Anyway, I don't know how long 'til the update of this story because someone *cough* Sam *Cough* has had a paragraph in a chapter to update since before Christmas... So... It all depends on her stopping procrastinating... Sam. This is an outright hint for you to update, just saying.**_

**SAM:... I thought we were focusing on Blade of Aurora...?**

_**GREG: Lets not forget a huge part of Blade of Aurora spirals from this story therefore this story needs more chapters up... Plus there's a lot of plans to go for this- WAIT! STOP! WE'RE REVEALING TOO MUCH! **_

**SAM: In case you didn't read Mayla for the memo, we have unveiled the title for our showstopper- Blade of Aurora.**

**_GREG: Does the SOA in SOAverse make sense now? Huh? Well, do you get it? C'mon, I know you do._**

**SAM: I hope they do. But it'll be a pretty big story with quite a large cast, which we shall not be revealing so if you wanna find out, you're gonna have to read.**

_**GREG: Your favourite characters/couples maybe in it but we don't know... So we suggest reading until the end of the second chapter (because that's when everyone arrives) and if you don't see your favourite there and don't wanna read, then you can stop :) All we're saying is give them a chance to arrive... Some have to come down from space, it takes a while!**_

_**So review time.**_

_**CarterlovesDana: See, that's how a normal person would see the whole situation.. But Carter is just too nervous, bless him. Ryan has a notebook full of plans so we'll see how he goes... Wo-wo-wo-woah, hold the baby train... Lets at least let her get through medical school before she's pregnant :') Thanks for the review. **_

_**And thanks for the favourites and follows :D **_

**SAM: So, that's it and I guess we'll see you in two weeks!**

_**GREG: Happy Holidays everyone! :) See you soon!**_


	5. Plan C- Chad

_**Matchmaking Mishaps**_

**What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.**

**CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.**

**Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.**

_**CHAPTER FIVE**_

_**Plan C: Chad**_

Carter looked up from his cereal bowl as someone sat next to him; surprisingly, it wasn't Dana, it was Ryan- Dana wouldn't be happy when she saw Ryan had taken her seat. Ryan nodded toward the counter where Chad and Dana were talking as they got their food. "Can you see how close she's standing to him?" Ryan said, shoving a spoonful of food into his mouth and continuing with his statement, food spraying out of his mouth with every word. "She likes him."

"She's trying to get to the bread-"

"No, she's into him. Think of how much time they've been spending together; you only spend that much time with someone when-" Okay, so maybe Chad had been around Dana more recently but it was Carter's fault, he had turned her down by accident last time she asked so she hadn't asked him; usually it was him she was around... "-So I'm thinking there's definitely going on between, and even if there wasn't before, something's changed. I mean look at the way she's hanging on to the small amount of words he's saying- she wouldn't be doing that if she saw him as just a friend don'tcha think?" Carter stared at ice blue eyes that were looking at him expectantly. He opened his mouth, not sure if he should comment on his growing obsession with Chad or actually answer his question, only to be saved by Angela's voice over the PA system, requesting his presence. He let out a small sigh of relief, stuffed the remainder of his breakfast into his mouth before shooting Ryan an apologetic grin and rushing out of the room.

* * *

"Are you following me?" Carter questioned as he turned the corner and walked straight into Ryan, who appeared to have been waiting for him expectantly. He stood in front of the door to the rec-room, stopping Carter from getting past; each time he tried to step around the blond, Ryan jumped in the way, creating a very awkward dance.

"You didn't answer this morning!" Ryan hissed, "Don'tcha think?"

"Because there is nothing to answer! Dana hangs onto every word anyone says, no matter how pointless- that's just what she does! It's because she's nice and caring and-" Carter abruptly stopped, feeling his cheeks begin to burn from his babbling on about how 'nice' the Pink Ranger was. The Fireman gave up with the dance and stalked off down the corridor, hearing Ryan running to keep up with him. As they both turned the corner, they walked straight into Chad and Dana who seemingly stopped their hushed conversation to stare at the pair. By this point, Carter was furious that Ryan kept cropping up where ever he went; he wasn't usually this- this- _clingy!_

Dana would take sympathy. Dana would help him. She'd give him a scapegoat. "Day, didn't you need to get something from town?" Not exactly a lie, she had needed to collect some books for school or so he could recall from their last, brief conversation. "I have to go to the fire house and my apartment to get some stuff, if you need a ride?"

Dana's pale cheeks flooded with pink and she exchanged a glance with Chad. Her azure blue eyes returned to Carter and she chewed her lip as she spoke, "Thanks but I promised I'd go to the Marine Park with Chad."

Really?! She couldn't help him? "Oh." His tone laced in annoyance, "That's fine I guess."

"I'm sure Ryan will go with you." She smiled softly- No! Last thing Carter wanted!

"Sure." Ryan grabbed Carter's arm and dragged him, "Let's go Fire Truck." That would be a couple of hours of having Ryan going on and on and on about Chad and his sister... Since when did Ryan care about Dana? And since when did Ryan think Carter actually cared about his growing obsession with Chad?!

* * *

Carter took a look around from the tree he was hiding behind, keeping an eye out for Ryan. Judging by the lack of annoying blondes, he had managed to lose the man-child. He let out a small sigh of relief and slipped his phone out of his pocket, typing out a text.

It was simple enough, an invitation to grab some dinner; pressing send was a little more difficult. He was sure a sufficient amount of time had passed since Chad and Dana had left for the Marine Park and so they must've been done by now. She was probably Chad-free now. He nodded slightly to himself and sent the text message. A few minutes passed before his phone chimed, signalling a reply.

_'Sorry gonna grab pizza with Chad.'_

Huh. Was dinner really necessary? They'd already spent a good portion of the day together- weren't they sick of each other by now?

"Told you they've gotten closer," Carter jumped a foot high, turning his head towards the blonde behind him. Bloody demon child.

* * *

Finally, after many hours of attempting to get rid of Ryan, he had successfully managed it. Okay, so he was crouched in the corner of the rec-room behind the sofa, but Ryan wouldn't be able to find him. He was Ryan-free. For how long though? 'Chad and Dana-' 'Dana and Chad-' 'Chad this-' 'Chad that-'; honestly, what was with his obsession?!

"What are you...?" He peered up awkwardly to see Dana looking down at him from her seated position on the arm of the sofa, "Aren't you a little old for hide and seek?"

"Ryan." He whispered, "He's been stalking me all day."

Dana smiled sympathetically and climbed over the back of the sofa to sit next to him, "Mind if I join? Chad has been driving me crazy. He's still not over Marina so I said I'd do whatever he wanted today... I didn't realise it would be so boring..." She turned to face him, "Did you know that there are more than one type of dolphin?" He smiled at her sarcastic tone and watched as she started pressing buttons on her Morpher, "You might want to silence it if you don't want to be found..."

"Oh yeah..." Smart Grayson; how did you honestly forget that?! He began to press the buttons as he added "Your brother has a growing obsession with Chad... That's all he spoke about all day."

"Oh, sorry for blowing you off twice today- maybe if Chad's so interesting to Ryan he can hang out with him tomorrow and I'll take that ride into town- wait!" He turned to face her and only then established how close they were to each other... No, no, no! No stuttering, not now! "You don't think Ryan..." She nodded suggestively instead of finishing her sentence, "Do you?" Damn she was beautiful; now that he was so close, it was all he could focus on. Her eyes were the same shade as the sea, big and lined with long golden eyelashes; lips a rosy pink against her light skin, with a natural blush on her cheeks... Her eyes always seemed to be smiling, how did she manage- STOP IT! ANSWER HER!

"Ma-ma-maybe." He stuttered, averting his gaze back to his morpher, "Its possible."

"Finally! He's showing an interest in someone!" She exhaled wistfully, "Okay! I'm gonna help him-" The door hissed open and both froze as they heard the footsteps.

"I know you're in here Carter~." How the hell did he find him?!

"I'll hold him off..." Dana whispered as she slowly rose to her feet, "Hey Ry..."

"What are you doing there?"

"Hiding... Carter was in the tech lab... Want me to take you?" Well... He might not have been alone with Dana anymore, but at least Ryan wasn't bothering him.

* * *

**SAM: Hey guys! Long time no write!**

_**GREG: It's been like what, a month? But to be fair, we've had our exams and they're still no over D: We warned about slow updates and followed through 3:**_

**SAM: That we did ^^"**

_**GREG: Our exams finish this week so hopefully we can get back into writing very soon and post a little more frequently than every full moon...**_

**SAM: Though full moon's are always fun...**

_**GREG: Unless you're a werewolf... So, anyway: PLAN C!**_

**SAM: CHAD~!**

_**GREG: Aww, poor Carter having Ryan pester him all day and then Chad not realising what was happening... 3: And Chad isn't over Marina... Bless.**_

**SAM: And Ryan seems a bit obsessed, doesn't he?**

_**GREG: Then Carter's awkward little moment behind the sofa that Dana seemed blissfully unaware of... They're so damn adorable yet so awkward at the same time.**_

**SAM: It's quite frustrating actually.**

_**GREG: Some say frustrating, I say cute... If Ryan knew they were both there, he would've grabbed their heads and been like 'kiss!'...**_

**SAM: As Ryan does.**

_**GREG: Chipping Carter's tooth and giving Dana a concussion...:')**_

**SAM: Damn straight.**

_**GREG: So, let's get to the reviews... CarterlovesDana, well Ryan doesn't fully understand social conventions... Maybe a slip of Dana's rescue blaster may have encouraged Ryan to butt out of her love life, if she knew he knows anyway... As far as she is concerned, Carter doesn't know of her little crush! Dana didn't need to apologise, Carter just could never be mad at her for very long :3 Glad you liked it and thanks for the review! :P**_

**SAM: Also, thanks to the faves and followers for you guys' support!**

_**GREG: We're writing the next chapter currently but it may be a while because of everything going on at the moment... We appreciate your patience and dedication in waiting :3 We're really sorry but we're 18 so have a lot going on right now.**_

**SAM: It's a lame time in life.**

_**GREG: It sucks but we're soldiering on... So, our next update will be our other story 'Blade of Aurora' if you wanna take a look, it has Dana, Carter and Ryan in :P But this story should have an update soon :)**_

**SAM: Yash, hopefully.**

_**GREG: So... I guess that's it? Thanks for reading :P**_

**SAM: Yups we hope you enjoyed this chapter and we'll see you next time!~**

_**GREG: Adios!**_

**SAM: Ja ne!**


	6. Plan D- Date

_**Matchmaking Mishaps**_

**What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.**

**CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.**

**Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.**

**[A/N] Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :)**

**_CHAPTER FIVE_**

**_Plan D- Date_**

Dana narrowed her eyes to focus on the map she had found on the breakfast table, apparently left by her father, with the instructions to follow it and collect something for Angela - an easy enough task, had it not been for the fact Carter had signed out the Rover for the day and was still in his room, much to her annoyance. She wanted to get this out of the way early so she could salvage the rest of the day but storming into his room and dragging him out by the ear may work with Joel and Ryan, but was far more inappropriate with Carter _'not to mention I'd probably need a boost to reach his ear, or a very high step.' _She mentally noted.

After ten minutes of nonchalantly waiting outside his door, she gave in and knocked - hearing a groan from the other side of the door that made her blush furiously; so what if it was seven am, Carter was normally always punctually at the table by seven thirty! The thirty minute early wake up call can't do much to his sleeping pattern!

"Its me." Dana said, quickly remembering that this was a thick metal door and Carter did not have x-ray vision- _smart Dana, smart._ "Dana."

"Dana?" He echoed. A lot of shuffling happening behind the door. Oh great! She'd not only woken him, she'd now put him into a state of frenzy!

"Yeah. I was wondering if I could take the Rover for an hour or two, Dad wants me to pick up something."

"I kinda need it-"

"Well then, can I borrow your truck?" The rusting red Chevy would be better than taking one of the Rescue cycles, "its too far to walk." And she couldn't exactly pin point where she had to go either, somewhere on the far side of the town anyway, "Please? I'll do anything-"

"The Chevy's broken."

Now it was her turn to groan. Well, maybe Kelsey would lend her-... The door opened, to reveal Carter tugging his red thermal on. Dana had to turn away to stop herself from blushing; him in a state of undress (okay he was _almost_ fully dressed but she'd seen a bit of his torso before his head came through the neck hole) was a distraction she did not need on her mind all day. She was sure her cheeks were flushee bright red, keeping her gaze focused down the corridor to avoid eye contact.

"Where do you need to go?" She held the map up to him, still not meeting his eye, with her finger pointing to the warehouse, "That's on my route, I can take you-"

"Great. Let's go." She turned on heel so fast that she lost her balance and almost fell to the floor- _almost,_ because instead of falling flat on her face, she fell back against him (falling on her face would have been far less embarrassing). Dana jumped forward, stumbling over her own feet and ducked her head, "Sorr- i- sorry- I ju- lets go."

"But breakfast-" Apparently he was either too sleep deprived to notice her big slip up or too polite to make a big deal of it.

"I'll buy you something after, I owe you big time and- let's go." She grabbed his sleeve and tugged him in the direction she wanted to go, still looking away, "Anything you want but let's go!"

* * *

Within thirty minutes (it had taken ten to coax a sleep deprived Carter into the driver's seat and to put her seatbelt on with the mental image of his sculpted torso still running through her mind, talk about butter fingers!) they were approaching the warehouse; had Carter not gotten his right confused with his left, they would've pulled up a lot sooner.

"Sorry I had to drag you out of bed... I didn't realise it was your morning off training." Actually, Dana didn't know of Carter ever taking a morning off training, _'And you had to wake him up during his lie in.'_

"Its fine." He answered, pulling the gearstick into park stiffly, giving Dana the impression that it wasn't _'Fine'_.

"You can wait here if you want." She started to climb out of the Jeep as Carter also did.

"It might be heavy-"

"I think I can manage."

"It might be heavy." He repeated, leading the way into the dilapidated warehouse.

A smile graced Dana's lips, knowing deep down that 'it might be heavy' may not have been Carter's real reason. She grabbed onto his shoulders, standing on tiptoes to whisper into his ear with a singsong voice, "Sure, _'heavy'_. It isn't anything to do with the fact last time I did something on my own, I almost got killed facing my brother or the time I ended up in a hostage situation and dangling off a cliff."

"Not at all." He stepped forward, making Dana lose her balance, "It might be heavy." His voice gave away no hints as to whether Dana's theory was correct so she allowed the subject to drop and followed him deeper into the warehouse.

As they turned the final corner, Dana's mood instantly switched from playful to agitated. "_Kelsey Winslow.'_ She hissed under her breath, stepping over to the clearing where a picnic blanket was placed, laiden with pastries, fruit and bread with a flask. _Really Kelsey?! A date_?!

"_Day.._." Carter asked in an awkward tone, "What is-"

"Kelsey." She spat, "When I get my hands on her, I'm going to kill her."

"It isn't you?"

"Why would I set this up?"

"I don't think its Kelsey." Carter grabbed the flask- Coffee was coffee after all, and he needed coffee, "I think it was Ryan."

"Trust me." Dana narrowed her eyes at the food, "This has Kelsey written all over it- wait, why would it be Ryan?" She tossed Carter a puzzled gaze to which he shrugged as he took a sip of the bitter, black drink.

"Its a long story."

"I'm sorry I wasted your time." She sighed, beginning her exit from the building with Carter in tow, "If I'd known-"

"Don't sweat it, besides..." He held up the flask, "This is really good coffee."

* * *

This was exactly how she liked it. Early morning air and light sunshine hitting her face, the wind whisping through her hair gently and the sound of music quiet in the background. Dana closed her eyes, soaking up the sun's rays (making a mental note to leave the base, the library and school more often to get extra doses of vitamin D) whilst listening intently to Carter singing softly under his breath to the song playing on the tape, '_Cryin'' _by Aerosmith; he wasn't fantastic at singing but he wasn't the worst. In fact, Dana found it kinda soothing, not that She'd let him know that; as long as he didn't start a drum solo on the steering wheel, she could relax.

"You sound a million times better than Joel's yodelling." She opened her eyes again, gaze drifting to look out over the cliff stomach clenched as she remembered where she was. '_Oh boy...'_

"A cat being strangled sounds better than his yodelling."

"You know what's bad for vocal chords - coffee."

"Hey, I need it to wake up, unlike you I don't wake up bright eyed and bushy tailed."

"I didn't realise you were such a morning person." She smirked, "It stunts your growth."

"I should've started drinking it when I was thirteen then." A smile crossed his face as Dana looked at him, "Maybe then I'd be a normal height."

"I like your height." She defensively stated, "You've got the build for your height, imagine being my height with your build, you'd look odd." Distracting herself, that was a good tactic, ignore the dusty road and focus on Carter and his height- not his torso, "Besides, I think most women prefer a tall guy, something about making them feel safer. You know like tall, dark and handsome."

"One out of three isn't bad then."

"You have darkish blond hair, and I'm pretty sure a lot of girls at my school would agree with you being handsome."

"And what do you think?"

_'I'm going to be sick from nerves?' _

"Does it matter what I think about you-"

"Not about me. What is it you like in a guy?"

"Oh." A blush creeping across her _cheeks,_ "I don't really have any distinct thing- just the cliché of someone nice." Her stomach continued to knot to the point where she was sure she was going to be sick. Dana grabbed at a bar on the passenger side, focusing on her breathing. In and out, that's it... No. She had to look. "Pull over." Her voice meeker than before, sounding as if she was forcing back a lump in her throat.

"What?" Carter glanced over at Dana and was instantly struck by how pale she had gone, "Day?"

"Pull over Carter." Distress echoed in her tone, "Carter pull over!"

"Dana, are you okay-"

"_Pull the damn car over!" _ She shouted, quivering slightly when her eyes finally focused on the sight she had been fearing.

"Okay, okay..." Carter calmly stated, pulling out of the lane and parking at the side. The second the vehicle had stopped moving, Dana flung open the car door and was metres away from the Rover before he had time to ask what was up.

She dropped to her knees, breath catching in her throat. This was worse than the last time...

"_Oh Ry..."_ She whispered, gingerly touching the plaque on the stone that had been defiled with horrid words and threats. Tears welled up in her eyes as her attention turned to the shards of glass and syringes and litter left by those with no respect for the meaning of the rock before her. "Why do they do this to you...?" She shook off her jacket, laying it down gently before placing the shards of glass onto it, counting every shattered piece with a stab to her heart.

"Hey.." Carter knelt down beside her, resting a hand on her back softly, "What was that-" his gaze fixing on the inscription on the plaque,

_'Ryan William Alexander Charles Wolfgang Mitchell._

_19th September 1980- 26th December 1986._

_Flying amongst the angels.'_

"Oh."

"People hate him because he helped the demons, but they don't know what he went through." She looked to Carter with tears running down her cheeks, "They write 'Demon scum', 'Traitor', 'Devil Spawn' and do this to it, every week near enough. They don't see that he may have done the wrong thing first but he took our side and feels guilty about it all the time."

"People are petty Day."

"He was robbed of a normal life and childhood- this was all we had of him because there was no body. I know he's okay now but, two months ago, I didn't and this was all I had." Dana felt herself being pulled into Carter's chest, his arms around her tightly, turning into him for comfort. "If I could, I'd swap my life for his so he'd have a chance to be normal and not have this constantly."

"The people doing this are spineless Dana, they think they're being cool when they're just idiots." She buried her head further into him as he spoke, finding comfort from both his words and his embrace, "We'll clean this up and-"

"They'll only do it again." She whispered, finally forcing herself away from him and wiping under her eyes, "That's what they do. I come here at least once a fortnight to clean it..."

"Then we'll keep coming back to clean it." He wiped a stray tear from her cheek tenderly with his thumb, "I'll handle the glass and needles, you collect the litter and we'll come back later to get the pen off."

"You'll cut yourself-"

"My hands are covered in callous' from burns so I have less chance than you do." He showed her his hands to prove his point, moving to pick up the glass.

"I have the solvent in my bag in the car." Dana told him, rising to her feet, "I told you it happens often... I'm saving up to get a glass case put around it to stop this happening."

"That's gotta be-"

"Expensive." She exhaled, now fully composed and focused on the task at hand, "I know but Ryan's worth it to me, no matter how annoying. Thank you for this by the way. And how you are with him. I get he's annoying but he's tryna fit in... I really appreciate how you are with him..."

"It makes up for all the glass you've plucked out of my hands in the last six months." She smiled at his retort, now taking her cue to go the Rover.

"You know, he thinks of you as his best friend right!" She called back to him, but Carter was now absorbed in picking up needles (no doubt riddled with hepatitis) and glass.

This wasn't fair on her or her family; the Mitchell's deserved some respect for all they had lost and all they were doing to protect the town. Carter looked at the stone before chancing a glance back to Dana, who was innocently rifling through her bag to find the solvent. Perhaps this would stop happening a lot sooner than Dana had initially thought...

* * *

Later that day, Carter was heading to the cafeteria for dinner when he passed Dana's room and caught sight of a broad back that definitely did not belong to the Pink Ranger. He paused to look through the open door and saw Ryan scrutinising over a children's book with sharp eyes and furrowed brows. Carter watched the Titanium Ranger look at the pages and silently attempt to sound out the words.

"Hey," Carter said gently and Ryan quickly tossed the book over his shoulder and turned to give the man a casual nod. "You eaten yet?"

Ryan cleared his throat and glanced at the alarm clock at Dana's bedside. "Uh no, didn't realise it was already time to eat. You heading over?"

"Yup, come on," Carter gestured towards the cafeteria and both blonds began walking. There was silence before Carter nonchalantly asked "So, how are your lessons coming along?"

Ryan shrugged and kept his gaze forward, "Alright, I guess, don't really like the tutor though." Carter noticed Ryan's eyes lowered when he mentioned his tutor before he forced his face to become blank. Before he could question him further about it Ryan plastered on a rather believable grin and pointedly asked "So how was your day?" Carter let the younger man change the topic but made a note to keep an eye on his tutor.

"It was long, I guess."

"Good thing there was coffee, right?"

"Yea - wait, what?" Carter stared at him inquisitively and Ryan grinned brightly before dashing off. Carter facepalmed and let out a long sigh, "Called it."

* * *

_**[A/N]**_

_**GREG: Hey guys! We've kinda kept to our biweekly plan! We've had a tough week so I'm surprised we did post... We received our A-level results and found out if we had a place at university. But, here we are! And thank you for being so lovely and patient! Let me explain the biweekly thing; we'll be alternating between updating this story and Blade Of Aurora every two weeks. We put up Chapter three of B.O.A up the other week (where all the Ranger's arrived to aid the Mystic's, including Carter, Dana and Ryan) so it was this stories chance to shine... Ish... If you're reading both stories its simpler than just this one, you can just check our profile every two weeks to see which has been updated. If you're only reading one then just remember the update schedule will be a little different.**_

**SAM: So, who got Ryan's plan?**

_**GREG: I kinda like this plan... Ryan wasn't really involved like the others... And the scene on the cliff was kinda sweet.**_

**SAM: It was angsty and fluffy, which is always nice to have.**

_**GREG: And it had an Aerosmith reference... Always a good thing.**_

**SAM: Also, any guesses what's coming next? I'm curious about what you guys think?**

_**GREG: It was also different to see Dana being the nervous one, and a nice little male bonding at the end. But like Sam said, what do you guys think is going to happen? So let's get to the reviews!**_

**_THANK YOU TO ANY FOLLOWS AND FAVS!_**

**_Dash master 48-Yes, poor Chad, simply a pawn in Ryan's plans... Chad and Maya huh? I don't personally ship it because I like Chad and Marina (and Kelsey actually...) But I see it... Yeap, I know Super Sentai but I haven't seen it... I think Sam has watched an episode or two though... Thanks for the review!_**

**SAM: Front line, we're glad you liked it, and we try not to put too much exposition, just enough for character and plot development.**

_**GREG: CarterLovesDana; an yes, awkwardness between the pair works. They both plainly like each other but they know it isn't appropriate due to having to work together so are trying to ignore it but that's just backfiring on them... An huh, she could get him a sedative but I reckon Ryan could find a way to stay awake throughout it... No make out sessions yet, maybe in the future *knowing smirk to Sam*. Thanks for being patient and we hope this was worth the wait. :D**_

**SAM: Fave, follow, review and ciao guys!**

_**GREG: We'll be updating B.O.A next if you wanna check that out, chapter three is finally up! We'll see you really soon guys! Adiós!**_


	7. Plan E- Education

_**Matchmaking Mishaps**_

**What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.**

**CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.**

**Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.**

**[A/N] Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :)**

_**CHAPTER SIX**_

**_Plan E- Education_**

"Someone needs to get out of their room more." Ryan groaned as he stepped into his sister's pristine room; there were three people on the base who kept their quarters ridiculously neat, so neat in fact that Ryan believed if you looked in their underwear drawer, you'd see everything colour coded and sectioned- not that he planned to check that theory in Dana's room, but he was sure that Chad and Carter did it. The only evidence that this room was lived in was a text book and notepad laying open on her writing desk and the bedside drawer being slightly open, giving Ryan the impression Dana had woken up late for school after a late night cram session and had grabbed her morpher in a rush, leaving a tiny mess behind her.

"Tut, tut." He smirked, opening said drawer to its full extent and began to root through it. Pens, notepad, stuffed toy, their mother's music box... Huh? He plucked a box from the back and opened it to reveal a tray covered in foil, round holes on one half, the other had holes that hadn't been opened yet with days of the week on. The box had 'Miss D. Mitchell' written on the front, along with a very long title that he couldn't even attempt to pronounce. He furrowed his brow, shrugging off the weird box and shoved them into his pocket.

"Back to work." Ryan wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for in Dana's room... Something to help him with his matchmaking plans? Something to help him understand normal people better? Something to help him feel closer to his sister and understand her better? All very good theories... He opened the top drawer in a set by the wardrobe and instantly wished he'd left that one alone... Gross! Underwear!

"What are you doing Ryan?" His head snapped to the doorway where Carter stood, looking unimpressed by Ryan's sleuthing.

"Just... You know..." He shrugged.

"You shouldn't be in her room Ryan."

"What you gonna do? Tell her?" He stepped in front of the giant, leaving Dana's drawer of unmentionables fully open, "Because she wouldn't be happy to find out you were in here too."

"But I'm-" before the sentence could leave his lips, Ryan had grabbed a fistful of fabric from Carter's thermal and violently pulled him into the room, letting the door close to stop any escape.

"You are now. So, if you don't want her to be mad at you- which I imagine you don't seeing as you _like her~_\- it stays between us." He mentally noted that Carter, if he turned away from Ryan, would come face to face with Dana's most private drawer, a smirk crossed his face; that scene was one he would love to witness... "You can help me, I'm tryna find out more about my sister. You know her well... What do you know?"

"And you think looking around her room will help you?"

"Fool proof right? Besides, I found this strange box- I'll show it to you after we've ransacked the room. You take the chest of drawers, I got the bedside cabinets." Carter let out an exasperated breath before he turned to close the drawer behind him.

"Ryan, I'm serious, this is a bad ide-" His mouth fell open and blood surged to his face at an alarming rate, having caught sight of what he just knew were her underwear. He mimicked a fish, his face still red, before he swiftly slammed the drawer closed. He took a minute to compose himself and remind his brain that thinking about 'Dana' and 'underwear' together was extremely bad. Really bad. Carter decided a subject change was in order. "S-So um w-what's your tutor like? I think I've seen him a couple of times but I've never spoken to him." Carter watched the younger man pause before continuing to rummage through his sister's things.

"He... We don't talk much."

"Oh. Uh, what's his teaching like then?"

"He..prefers I do lots of work by myself." Carter noticed the careful way in which he said this, and his suspicions about Ryan's tutor grew.

"Does he help you out though?"

"Like I said, he tells me to figure it out on my own. Oh! I wanted to ask, what's this thingy?" Ryan swiftly changed the subject by pulling a box out of his pocket. Carter decided he was definitely going to check out this tutor but, for now, allowed the distraction. Ryan tossed the box to Carter, who caught it and instantly went a brighter shade of red than he had been moments earlier. Oh dear God, why Ryan? Why did you have to find these of all things?! "What is it? Is Dana dying or somethin'?"

"N-n-no." Carter stuttered, "Not dying. Wh-where did you find them?"

"In the drawer by her bed-"

"You don't go in a girl's drawer if it's by the bed!" Great, he now had not just the mental image of Dana's underwear, he now had her birth control pills in his hand! "Put them back!" Carter threw them back at Ryan- brilliant, he struggled to talk to Dana without getting tongue-tied, now he had to deal with knowing about her birth control pills and the contents of her underwear drawer! 'Oh, by the way, your brother and I were in your room whilst you were gone, I saw your underwear and contraceptives and I'm glad you're being careful in that department!' He knew it had been a bad idea!

"Not until I know what they are!"

"They're birth control!" Carter blurted out without thinking, almost instantly wishing he'd lied and said they were vitamins.

"Birth- control?" Ryan cocked his head and looked at the box a little closer, "What's that?"

"It doesn't matter Ryan-"

"I'll ask Dad then-"

"Nu-nu-no don't do that!"

"Then tell me!"

"Girls take them... To stop themselves getting pregnant."

"What?"

"You know what pregnant is, your mother was pregnant with Dana when you were two."

"Dude... All I can remember is mom going into hospital one day with Dad, then him coming home without her and having a stupid, noisy baby with him... Why does Dana have birth control?"

_Oh boy._ A lump formed in Carter's throat as he battled to think of a suitable way to break it to the woman in question's older brother. "I- i- I suppose she doesn't- doesn't want to have a baby yet."

"Well duh, they're noisy and- but why does she take them? What's she doing that involves babies?" No. That was out of Carter's comfort zone; he gathered a girl like Dana had to have a boyfriend, even though he hadn't actually seen the person yet, so it hadn't surprised him... But he was not going to explain to Ryan that his sister was doing things that Ryan had yet to even learn about- if the demons and his father hadn't given him the birds and the bees talk, Carter would be damned if he had to do it.

"You know what, put them back and ask Dana when you see her. Its her business, not mine."

"Touchy..." Ryan reopened the door and put them in, "Someone's jealous if you ask me."

"I'm not jeal-"

"Hey! Dana has a diary! Wanna read it?!"

"Shut the drawer Ryan."

"You're no fun." Ryan groaned childishly as he did as instructed, "Is it because you saw her underwear? I thought you liked her!"

"You knew what was in that drawer and you still made me- why?!"

"Because I knew your reaction would be hilarious."

Carter clapped his hands to his face, "Okay... I've had enough of this. Out of her room now." He grabbed Ryan by the shoulder and forced him from Dana's room, "As for your tutor, tell your dad. He's paying for the guy to teach you and he's not doing a thing-"

"Dad doesn't care unless it's about his angel child or Power Ranger business." Ryan bluntly answered, glaring over his shoulder at Carter, "In case you haven't noticed, my father and I are not at that stage in a father-son bond where we can sit about talking. He doesn't know how to act and I don't know how to be."

"Then talk to Dana, she'd care. She wants what is best for you." He dropped his grip from Ryan, softening his voice, "Your dad just needs time to adjust."

"Whatever." Ryan leant against the wall, eyes dropping to his black combat boots, "He doesn't have time for me, that's how its going to be- I hear having a missing child for fourteen years does that to a parent."

"Ryan..."

"Dana has some science project to bring home, can you get her? Its too big for her to carry... She asked me to ask you." Carter looked at the angst-ridden fair haired man with empathy; he would've asked why Dana didn't just ask him, but he felt guilty for touching a nerve with Ryan- the man needed time on his Dana up from school wasn't a big deal (underwear and birth control pushed to the back of his mind) as it would give him a chance to mention to Dana about Ryan's distant tutor and isolation from the Captain.

"Sure..." Carter turned to walk down the bridge connecting the Ranger quarters to Rescue Ops, pausing long enough to look back at Ryan, "You okay?"

"I'm fine." Ryan answered monotonously and unreassuringly... Time on his own, that was all he needed.

Ryan sank down to the floor after he heard Carter's heavy footsteps disappear off into the distance, dropping his head to his knees. He didn't care that he'd sent Carter off on a wild goose chase with his lie, the man shouldn't have asked him so many personal and prying questions. There was no use to them, this was his life- distant fathers, perfect sisters and people who hated him or just didn't care about him. Plain and simple. Talking and fussing wasn't going to alter reality. Ryan didn't know how much longer he stood there, only that he was broken away from his thoughts by the voice of his sister.

"What are you doing?" Dana asked, head slightly tilted.

"Nothing. What are you doing here? Don'tcha have school?"

"Not today."

"Then where'd you go?"

"The library and then the smoothie hut," she gestured to the half-full plastic cup of strawberry and mango smoothie. Ryan stared at the beverage blankly as the information processed.

"Oooh..no..."

"Hey! Carter!" Carter stopped in the hallway on the way to his room as he heard Dana's voice, turning to that direction as she came out of her room, "Where were you earlier? I was looking for you!"

"Really? Because I was waiting for you outside your school for over an hour." He aggitatedly retorted.

Dana paused just next to him, head tilted in confusion, "It was a training day- I was at the library and the smoothie shop." A smile graced her lips, "You were waiting for me?"

"We-we-well yeah, I mean, i- I thought that you wanted help so I- Ryan told me you were there."

"Sorry you wasted your afternoon for nothing then." Dana told him sincerely, to which he just shrugged; hey, it was better than what he had been doing before- okay, maybe that was a lie, Ryan needed to admit the truth to his father... But Carter could talk to Dana for him. "Look, did you speak to Ryan today? I'm really worried about him." Her brow furrowing as she spoke, nose crinkling up from deep thoughts, "I found him crouched on the floor and he looked so upset! But I went to ask him what was wrong and he ran away."

Carter leant against the wall to create a little more distance between him and the blonde, turning his gaze from her blue eyes to his morpher, "I found him in your room."

"What was he doing in there?!"

"Going through stuff, I told him not to and-" Oh God no, the memories of what he had seen came back and was making him flustered! Focus on what you're saying! Be careful not to- "He was going through your drawers- I tried to close them but- you know. He was- he doesn't listen and- I got him talking but- he was... And the drawers... And underwear-"

"Underwear?" Her voice reflected the confusion running through her eyes before Dana's cheeks flushed a red that could have easily rivalled Carter's jacket as she realised what he was saying, "What was- Carter!" She exasperatedly gasped, "Why the hell were you-"

"And birth control-" She silenced. Smooth Carter, smooth. Seriously Grayson, you could write a book about how to piss off the girl you like. Chapter One, Turn her down. Two, avoid her. Three, be sleep deprived when taking her on a drive and go past the cliff that harbours awful memories for her. Chapter Four, confess being in her room and seeing her underwear and contraceptive pills. In stores this December. Idiot.

"They're for cramps-" Apparently she was just as flustered and embarrassed as he was, "What did you tell him?!"

"The truth!"

"You couldn't lie and say they were vitamins?!"

"I'm sorry, I kinda didn't expect to find that! I panicked! I thought your dad would've given him the sex talk- I thought he would've known!"

"They're for cramps!" She repeated as if trying to justify herself to Carter.

"Sure they are." A sarcastic tone lacing his voice which appeared to only annoy Dana some more, "Look, anyway, he's upset because he feels your dad doesn't care. He thinks your dad only cares about you because you're perfect and Ryan is that unwanted child."

"That isn't true!" Dana protested, "Dad loves him! He just doesn't know how to show it without making Ryan uncomfortable. Besides, I'm far from perfect." Carter could argue against that point, even when she was mad, like seconds before, she still was perfect to him- Stop! Dana being perfect was not what he should be thinking about, he'd thought about her enough today after the fiasco in her room! This is about Ryan; Ryan and his shifty tutor.

"His tutor leaves him to do things on his own and doesn't help him. If he isn't motivating Ryan or willing to explain things to him, how can Ryan learn?"

"That ba-" Anger flickered across her face before she caught herself, closing her eyes and taking a calming breath, "And Ryan told you, not me?"

"He thinks you have enough on right now Day."

"He's my brother! I'd do anything to help him! He should be able to tell me these sorts of things, not someone he's known all of-" Carter could see the truth behind the words etched on her facial features, the way her eyes appeared adamant in helping Ryan, "I suppose he's known us both for the same amount of time." She sounded disheartened at that thought, "At least he trusts someone enough-"

"He didn't exactly tell me, he hinted and I put together pieces. I think I upset him earlier."

"At least you were observant enough to know something was wrong!"

"Hey," he spoke gently, resting a hand softly on her shoulder which brought her eyes to meet his, "You would've noticed, you've just been busy." She smiled at him and sighed,

"I suppose so... At least now something can be done. Why pay someone when you can do it yourself? I better find Dad and let him know to cancel Ryan's tutor, at least if I do it then I know he's getting the help he needs." Dana reached up and gave Carter a hug, burying her head into his neck. He was surprised by the embrace and took a second or two to respond but by the time he did, she had let go.

"Thank you for telling me. I told you he trusts you." She started up the corridor toward the Captain's office in Rescue Ops, calling back over her shoulder, "Go in my room again without my permission and I'll kill you Grayson!" He laughed, watching her turn into the bridge... At least Ryan was getting the help now, even if Dana thought he was some kind of underwear pervert...

* * *

**Sam: Hey guys! How you doing?**  
_**Greg: Long time no see! Sorry, we've just finished our first term at uni.. It was brutal.**_  
**Sam: We may not survive. Moving on from that harsh reality! Carter just can't catch a break can he? Birth control pills, underwear drawer...**  
_**Greg: Oh! And thank you to CarterlovesDana... She wrote a oneshot which is similar to this and we had already planned our chapter when we saw it. We checked with her and she was fine to give us the go ahead... So thank you! If you haven't checked out her one, its so adorably awkward so make sure you do!**_  
**Sam: Yup thanks! But what did you guys think of this chapter?**  
_**Greg: We hope you liked it as much as we liked writing it... I think this chapter and the next one have been my favourites to write to date.**_  
**Sam: Also, thank you to the followers, favers and reviewers for your support.**  
_**Greg: Hopefully we'll post again soon before the new year... We'll be in the swing of things again soon... If Sam finds time to write :P**_  
**Sam: Yah sorry ^^" But I will try :) Here's hoping second term will be simpler than first.**  
_**Greg: If not... I can always force her to on a train ride... Hold her lunch til ransom until she does... Im a good friend like that**_  
**Sam: She's the best.**  
_**Greg: I really am :) anyway, Merry Christmas/ Happy Holidays! And Happy New Year if we don't see you before then!**_  
**Sam: Ditto guys, she said it already but the sentiment is there! Ciao!**  
**Greg: Bye!**


	8. Plan F- Flowers

_**Matchmaking Mishaps**_

**What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.**

**CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.**

**Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.**

**[A/N] Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :)**

_**CHAPTER EIGHT.**_

**PLAN F- Flowers.**

Ryan peered suspiciously at the different flora decorating the store before a voice from behind the counter asked in a friendly tone, "Morning, how can I help you Sir?"

Ryan regarded the teenage girl with creamy skin and long, silky-straight pale blonde hair up in a ponytail, long bangs obscuring her right eye and most of that side of her face, with all the importance, it seemed, of life and death. After a minute of deliberation, he turned to the girl. "What kind of flowers would I get if I was in love with a girl who was obviously in love with me back but I'm a stubborn giant and she's clueless so her brother has to step in and set 'em up 'cause they're both idiots?"

The girl blinked her baby blue eyes before she looked at him sympathetically. "Ah, one of those. Well, I have just the bouquet for you," she walked out from behind the counter and started gathering flowers.

Ryan organised to have the flowers delivered to the Aqua Base with Carter's name squiggled at the bottom and made his way back to the base for his tuition. His handwriting had been legible enough he hoped- after all, there were only three 'Mitchell's on the base and surely, it would be obvious, that only one of them would be receiving flowers from men.

The bouquet had been big, a little more expensive than he had expected, with mixtures of white, pink and red roses with white and pink lilies mixed in (Carter had mentioned lilies and roses being Dana's favourites once right? Or was she allergic to them?! No. No. Dana was allergic to Orchids, he was sure of that.)

What girl didn't love flowers?!

Dana loved them! She always had some in a vase somewhere in the rec-room and her room, and being sent flowers had to be a clear sign that someone liked her!

It was a fool proof plan!

He only had to sit through an hour of boredom in his dad's office whilst his tutor read some book leaving Ryan to scrutinise over his times tables before he could go into the rec-room and see the results of his handiwork first hand! A perfect solution! He had done himself proud with this one.

In fact, in the ten minutes he'd been waiting for his tutor, he had been relishing in that fact. His thoughts were only disturbed when Dana, arms laiden with books, came in and placed the books down in front of Ryan.

His gaze moved from the pile to meet his little sister's eyes, "Is he not in?"

"He's not your tutor anymore." She stated firmly, taking the wheeled chair from its usual place in the corner and placed it beside Ryan, "I've spoken to Dad and he agrees that we shouldn't be paying a guy who isn't willing to assist you when the money could be put to better use- like for drivers ed for you and- well anyway, I said I'd teach you and we'll put the money what would've been wasted on that idiot to one side for you to use... I've had a college fund going since I was eight so its only fair you get some money for you to live on. Clothes, food, driver's ed, an apartment maybe."

Ryan furrowed his brow, watching Dana as her petite hands pulled at a large book, opening it to a specific page, "What's in it for you?" He asked brazenly.

She shrugged, "The pride of knowing I helped my big brother? Survivors guilt. It could have so easily been me taken Ry, so it isn't fair you aren't getting a chance to be-" she stopped, ducking her head shamefully, "Normal." He could hear the regret of the choice of words lacing in her tone.

"Forget it Sis, I'm not normal. I'm only doing this because- wait, did Carter tell you-?"

"He might've mentioned it." Her cheeks reddened and she held his gaze with sincerity in her eyes, "You might have given up on yourself Ryan... But I haven't." She turned back to the book, pushing it in his direction, "We're going to go as slow as you need to, and if you don't understand something then just ask me, okay? I'll help you. We'll do English today and maths tomorrow, a different subject each day. Okay? Do you have a notepad and pen- you know, for vocabulary?" He didn't on him, so she gave him one that had been muddled into the pile, "Tomorrow bring another one, its easier to keep maths and English separate. Do you remember when Dad use to read us stories? You loved Peter Pan and I liked Aladdin?"

Of course he remembered, those memories had kept him going when he was in the tomb. The first time Carter had caught him in Dana's room he had been leafing through Aladdin before throwing it to one side. Ryan nodded in response to Dana's query.

"I must have lost my copy of Peter Pan but I'll check the thrift stores and find another. I thought we'd start easy and work our way up. So... Aladdin." Ryan looked over the colourful illustrations before his attention moved to the words on the opposite page. "How about you read this page out loud for me and we'll go over words you can't comprehe- understand? I'll read the page after and we'll see how much we can get done in the hour."

That sounded easy enough... For a normal person.

It was Ryan's turn to duck his head, shaking it also.

"Ryan?" She rested her hand gently on his forearm, voice velvety smooth, "What's wrong?"

"Its embarrassing."

"Ry..."

"You read."

"I'm your sister Ryan, you can talk to me..."

"Its embarrassing."

"I bet its not... How about you tell me and then I'll tell you something embarrassing about me?"

"You go first."

"Fine..." She pressed her pink lips into a straight line as she thought, after a few seconds a smile crossed her lips, "Kelsey has been trying to teach me to surf for the past seven months and I still can't do it. I fall either face first or flat onto my butt. And it hurts each time. Last time Chad, Joel and Carter were there and I almost lost my bikini bottoms." Ryan smirked, imagining Carter's reaction to that scene, "You should come next time! Kelsey could teach you, you couldn't be as bad as me."

"I can't read..." He almost whispered the three words, and Dana had to double take the statement to be sure what she heard was correct; from Ryan's shamed reaction, she knew it was true.

Her heart broke as she saw his anger at himself, the self loathing behind his silver flecked eyes. She understood that, she hated when she couldn't do things- it had to be a million times worse when it seems like such a basic thing, yet no matter how hard you try you still cannot do it. Dana grew frustrated- frustrated at the tutor who hadn't bothered helping him, frustrated at her father for hiring such an asshole, frustrated at the demons for not even granting him that one simple thing of learning to read, frustrated that Ryan hadn't told anyone sooner, frustrated at Carter for being the one to see Ryan's pain but mostly, she was frustrated at herself. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder, nuzzling into his neck, "That isn't embarrassing Ry... Alot of people cant read."

"Says you Miss Future Doctor." That stung, but she ignored the comment, "You're never too old to learn... I'll teach you and before you know it, you'll be reading at a higher level than me." He shot her a disbelieving look but she just smiled softly, giving his cheek a quick peck, "Besides, I firmly believe everyone should read Dr Seuss. I'll get my ones and we'll read them together."

"You won't tell dad will you? He's already disappointed in me enough."

She bit her lip, meeting his gaze again, "Not if you don't want me to."

He gave her a half smile, half relieved and half sad. Now would be the time to hug him comfortingly, but she doubted Ryan was at that stage yet- anyway, she probably needed it more than him.

She turned back to the book, "Okay so change of plan. I'll read out loud, and you follow along with the words. If you see the word and hear it enough times, it might become familiar. And if there's a word you don't know, just tell me and I'll explain it to you."

Ryan nodded, now becoming an eager pupil. He wanted to get better, he didn't want to be a burden or a failure to his family. Dana began to read, slowly and clearly purely for Ryan's benefit. He hoped the flowers wouldnt arrive soon; not when he finally had his sister's attention all to himself.

It made him feel good.

It made him feel important...

It made him feel...

Included.

An hour later, their lesson had concluded and Ryan was leisurely walking out of the office, attention centred on the copy of Aladdin in his hands when he came to an abrupt stop. He looked up and quickly apologised to the delivery boy.

Wait...

Ryan sped over to the rec room to see if Dana had gotten the flowers. Sure enough, on the counter was the big bouquet of flowers he had lovingly picked for her earlier- and across the room, nose buried in a newspaper was Carter, pretending not to notice the huge bouquet.

"Hey, you forgot your- Who are they for?" Dana's voice came from behind Ryan, and as she sidestepped around him, passing him his vocab book before she moved to the flowers. Her eyes became soft, gently touching a delicate rose, "They're beautiful."

"Some guy dropped them off." Carter answered, finally placing his newspaper down, "He didn't actually say."

"There should be a card then." Dana started to root around until she found a tiny pink card, "The writing is too messy; it kinda looks like-" she squinted to read the clumsily written name, "W. Mitchell." "

What? Ryan moved to her side, ripping the card from her grasp.

"No way.""That's what it looks like." Dana wistfully sighed and perched herself on the sofa next to the Red, "Don't open the card Ry- if its for Dad, he should be the first to know who its from."

Carter noted that Dana now appeared glum, elbowing her softly in the side, "What's up?"  
"Someone sent my dad flowers... And it doesn't look like the town's normal bouquets... It looks more- selective, thoughtful..."

The man nodded, "Maybe your dad is seeing someone?"

"I would've thought he'd have told me... We never use to have secrets-" She stopped, realising that may have been true once but her father had hidden Ryan from her. She leant her head against his arm, "I'm just jealous I guess."

"It can't be for Dad!" Ryan exclaimed, slamming the note down on the counter. The label wasn't in his handwriting! The daft girl in the store must have re-wrote the card! She'd gotten the name wrong! "Can't we just-"

"You two might be getting an evil step mother, like in Cinderella." Carter teased. Dana shot him an amused grin, playfully hitting him.

"He never dated since-" Dana paused for a moment, forcing the word out over the lump in her throat, "Mom. I didn't think he would."

"Its better than him being alone right?"

"I guess." She brought her morpher up to her mouth, pressing a few buttons to be patched through to the Captain's head set, "Sir, something has been delivered to the Ranger quarters for you. I think you should see it."

_"I'm on my way. Thank you Dana."_

She pulled her hand away and pushed herself off Carter, shooting a glance over to the bouquet enviously, "I guess we'll find out who they're from now."

It took a few minutes for the Captain to arrive, but when he did, his gaze was immediately drawn to the bouquet, picking it out as a new feature. His gaze flitted to Dana in slight question. "Are those-?"

"For you? Yes, I believe so," she handed the flowers to her father who took them cautiously, regarding them with suspicion, as if they were not in fact flowers, but a bomb set to detonate. He examined them before taking the card to read.

His eyes scanned over the writing, his brows furrowed, and then he proceeded to regard the words again much more carefully. His ears burned pink and he cleared his throat, uncomfortable. He held out the card wordlessy for Dana to read, noticing his daughters curiosity and believing she wouldn't understand the implications behind of the message.

He didn't notice the way her face flushed a light red, her brows rose and she quickly ducked her head and covered her mouth with her fist.

Carter sent the blonde a questioning glance which only encouraged her to laugh more.

Captain Mitchell however gave Carter a straight look before asking, "Do you know about this?"

"No. I-" the card was held out for his benefit and after a minute of silent reading, his face faded of colour, "I didn't! I didn't send that- I didn't write that!"

"Would you care to explain Carter?"

His face began to burn violent red, stuttering to the point of hilarity that Dana grabbed the pillow from behind her and attempted to bury her face in it. "Sir, I didn't send those."

"They were meant for Dana." Ryan finally voiced which lead to everyone in the room staring at him with mouths open.

"You wrote that about me?!" Dana now flushed with embarrassment, "Carter!"

"And they say chivalry is dead." Captain Mitchell slammed his hand on the desk, "You write that filth-"

"I swear, I never sent them! I wouldn't say anything like that to anyone- especially not Dana!"

"Gee thanks."

"I didn't mean it like that! I just mean that- you're beaut- Dana's not my type!"

Ryan groaned inwardly at the giant's point. Bad move dude, bad move. Dana masked her disappointment well but not well enough for Ryan not to notice (and Carter from the way he turned away guiltily) Ryan felt guilty for putting her in that position.

"It was me." He admitted, "I sent the flowers. They were for Dana and I signed Carter's name. He had no idea about it."

Everyone fell into silence as they processed that point.

It dawned on Ryan that maybe what the girl on the shop had written on the card wasn't exactly the thing you send to someone...

Maybe.

"You sent them and signed my name? Why?!"

"I appreciate you sending them Ryan-" Dana picked up the vase, looking almost heartbroken at them, "But I'm not pathetic. I don't need you sending me flowers and pretending they were from another guy! If this is your idea of a joke then you're- you're- a- a- a- you're a jerk!" She dropped them into the metal bin and walked out of the room, disappearing down towards her quarters.

Captain Mitchell, concerned about his daughter's reaction, sent a death glare to both men before he quickly followed the direction she had gone in.

"What the hell?!" Carter rounded on Ryan, eyes narrowed. "I thought I told you I didn't want to be in a relationship with Dana, and then you send flowers to her, signing my name with th-that note!"

"Wait what went wrong with the note?" Carter flushed and quickly held the note up to him. "I don't get it." He said after squinting at the words.

"N-Never mind! The point is that you shouldn't have done that and now she's mad at you." Carter ran a hand through his hair, took one last glance at Ryan and left the room.

Ryan was left alone to think. 'Was it really that bad? I thought sending flowers was nice. UGH humans are so complicated!'

* * *

**[A/N]**

**SAM: Hey guys, new chapter!**

_**GREG: Miracle right? Or hell depending on how you view us :'D.**_

**SAM: Yes there is a very good chance that we're hell sent.**

_**GREG: Either way, we're not as evil as Ryan! So what did you think of this chapter? Flowers! And the dirty note...**_

**SAM: Oh, the sheer amount of misunderstandings.**

_**GREG: Yeah... I don't think you can blame Dana or Captain Mitchell for being mortified about the note- or Carter as the accused.**_

**SAM: And Ryan... Well, he tried and failed terribly, he doesn't even understand the note, poor sod.**

_**GREG: And what did the note say? Well... It was too innuendo-ridden for us to reveal to you poor, innocent people without subjecting your minds to filth... leave it up to you to decide.**_

**SAM: Yah, we're gonna have to let you use your imaginations.**

_**GREG: Anyway, we hope you enjoy it! And see you soon!**_

**SAM: Bye guys!**

_**GREG: OH! And thank you for the reviews of the last chapter :) as always, we love hearing you feedback, positive and constructive so please do keep it up! Alternatively, if you would prefer to send your constructive criticism privately, feel free to PM it to us- that way we can ask you questions about what you mean so all three of us can understand better. :) **_

_**BYE GUYS! SEE YOU IN A WEEK OR TWO!**_


	9. Plan G- Going AWOL

_**Matchmaking Mishaps**_

**What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.**

**CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.**

**Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.**

**[A/N] Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :)**

_**CHAPTER 9!**_

_**Plan G- Going AWOL.**_

Dana folded her arms in on her stomach, staring nervously down at the feet. By her side, Carter kept his gaze focused on the road, lips firmly pressed together into a tight line. It had to be them asked to collect some new tech in Reefside, almost four hours out of Mariner Bay. They'd been driving for almost two hours in silence, the radio being the only noise.

At first, Dana had decided to read a textbook, but after a while she grew bored of that. They weren't exactly on speaking terms after the flowers, which didn't exactly seem right seeing as Carter was completely innocent in the whole thing- it was just her pride that had taken a hit. It hurt her more than it should probably have that he wasn't interested in her, she'd quite plainly been told she wasn't his type.

A loud clunk came from the engine, making Dana sit bolt upright at a startling speed that even Carter looked away from the road momentarily to her.

"Rock." He answered, "Did it wake you?"

"I wasn't asleep." She croaked, voice gravelly from not speaking for so long, "Daydreaming."

"Look..." He pulled into a different lane, dropped his speed until he could pull off the highway and came to a stop. He twisted in his seat to face her and switched the engine off as he did so. "I'm sorry about-"

Dana shook her head, "Forget it, lets just go."

"No, I don't want anything awkward between us. I swear, if I'd known what Ryan was up to I wouldn't have let him-"

"I'm sorry it was your name he put on there."

"He shouldn't have put you in that situation either. And-"

"Look, seriously Carter, its fine." She bluntly stated, "Can we just go? I don't feel so great."

"It's not fine seeing as we literally haven't spoken since getting in the Rover."

"Okay look, truthfully. My ego took a bruise, I'll get over it so please can we just get this done so we can go and I can go back to moping in my room. Thank you." She turned away from him and stared out the window at the cars on the highway.

Carter stared at the back of her head for a moment before sighing and turned back to the wheel. He turned the key, yet the engine didn't come on, instead it spluttered and shuttered. "The hell?" He muttered trying again with the same result.

Dana slowly looked over her shoulder back at him, "What?"

"I think the Rover just died..." He ripped off his seat belt and clambered out of the vehicle and stormed over to the bonnet. He lifted it up and was instantly hit the face with a cloud of smoke. He spluttered, waving away the dirty mist and looked in. "It looks like someone took a whack at rewiring it!"

Dana arrived by his side, also peering into the engine even though she had no idea what any of it meant. "Should we call Angela? How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad." He rolled his jumper sleeves up, "We're gonna be here a while."

"You know how to fix it?"

"Ish. I've repaired it before but not when a nut job rearranged everything. Did you bring your cell?"

"It's dead."

"Mine too." He leaned in to take a closer look. "I don't remember us passing a station."

"There's a toolbox in the back." She disappeared out of his view and reemerged a minute later with a big, red, metallic box that rattled when she placed it down. "I'll let everyone know and walk that way and see if I can find a station. You had to pull of the road didn't you?"

"You're saying this is my fault?" He stuck his head up and met her gaze which was almost enough to cut him in half, "I didn't mess the car up."

"No, but you had to pull off the highway onto a dirt track and now we've broken down here!" She started to walk the direction they would've been heading, lifting her morpher up to her mouth.

"Well I didn't expect us to break down! It isn't my fault! Just because you're in a bad mood!"

"Oh so its my fault?!" She shouted back as she continued to storm off without turning around. "Of course it must be! Get it fixed before I get back!"

* * *

_FIVE HOURS EARLIER_

Ryan snuck into the loading bay, intent on setting up his latest scheme. He hoped this one would help fix all that went wrong with his flower idea. He opened up the bonnet of the Rover and looked thoughtfully at the components. This lasted about half a minute before he began rearranging the wires.

"Hmmm...that can go there...move that...take that out...and now it looks pretty!" He nodded, pleased with his work, and closed the hood.

* * *

_PRESENT TIME_

It was almost two hours- in the hot, burning sun working non-stop over a wreck of an engine- before Dana returned. Carter stuck his oil covered face up as he heard her voice, seeing that she was on the phone to someone with a paper bag in her spare arm. He could only just make out part of her conversation.

"Look, I'm sorry Lance but I can't avoid it. I'm on some side road and the car has broken down- No, I was really looking forward to dinner- Hello?" She groaned, "Damn signal." Dana pocketed her phone as she reached the Rover.

"I thought you said it was dead?" Carter took the water bottle she handed him from the bag and Dana moved back to the passenger door, placing the bag down on her seat and rifled through it's contents.

"It was. The people at the station let me charge it and gave me some supplies." She tossed him a protein bar and looked sheepish, "I played the Ranger card." She furrowed her brow, "You're gonna dehydrate from the insulation of that pullover alone."

"And what do you suggest?" He placed the bar in his pocket and returned to the Rover's engine, "I didn't bring my change of clothes."

"Take it off." She spoke authoritatively, "It's making you irritable."

"What's making me irritable is we have a small spat and your reaction is to walk away, disappear for hours on end then you come back and act like everything is fine."

Dana met his gaze in shock, "Maybe that's how I deal with things. You throw yourself into things, I take a break."

"I didn't make Ryan-"

"Leave Ryan out of this Carter, he's not the reason I'm mad at you! I'm annoyed about- you know what, I don't have to explain myself to you." She shrugged off her jacket and threw it into the back, "But I'd prefer if you stopped snapping and either worked in silence or were civil-" a sound cut through the air and both stood to attention.

A motorcycle.

"Flag him down." Carter instructed, "They can help."

"Gladly." Dana moved to the side of the road.

"Undo a few buttons and hike up your skirt-"

"What?!" She turned in disgust.

"He's more likely to stop for a pretty, under dressed woman than me, trust me."

"And why should I do that?!" She rolled the waistband of her skirt up a few inches regardless and unbuttoned a couple of her blouse's top buttons.

"Because before Ryan you did, since he's come to the base everything has been different!"

"Stop blaming Ryan!" She shouted, "You're the one whose changed!" They both stopped as the cycle came into view in the horizon.

Dana walked closer to the road, squinting at the driver before making out a Lightspeed jacket. "Joel... Joel! Hey!" She began yelling, waving her arms to get his attention. Joel seemed to notice them, waving at them before quickly putting his hand back on the handle. He wasn't slowing down. "Wha-Joel?!" Dana yelled as he zoomed past. "God dammit!" She swore, kicking dust into the air and groaning loudly in frustration.

Carter smirked at her reaction and ducked his head back to the engine, "Haven't you ever hitch hiked before?"

"There are a lot of things I haven't done before." She snapped as she returned her clothes to their modest state, "I was only allowed to start driving last year, and even then my dad made sure one of the landrovers were following me."

"Why?"

"I don't know; I suppose he thought I'd get in an accident or something. How's the hood looking?"

"I think I got it- almost." He chanced a glance at her. Dana had her back to him, arms folded across her chest suggesting she was angry- very angry. "What do you mean by me being the one whose changed?"

"What are you talking about?" Dana asked, attention being pulled back to the Red.

"You said I was the one who'd changed. I just don't get how I have."

"You have changed. Maybe its just me but that's how it feels." She looked back to the road again, "If you're not finding reasons to not hang out, you're talking weirdly or just making sounds. Before you were so easy to talk to and be around but now it feels like you find it a chore and can't be bothered."

"That's not true."

Dana whipped back around creating a cloud of dust from the speed. "It is true! And it has been for so long now that it's getting so annoying! I thought we were friends Carter!"

"We are friends!" He replied heatedly.

"Then why are you acting like that?" She yelled.

"I'm not acting any different!"

"Yes you are! This is one of the first conversations in weeks where I'm getting full sentences from you! Just tell me what the hell I've done wrong to deserve this!"

"It's-" Carter paused, took a breath, and tried to arange his thoughts. "You haven't done anything. I'm...just going through some stuff that's stressed me out some. I didn't mean for you to feel like that." Carter ran a hand through his hair, sweeping his bangs away from his face.

"Well you know if something's stressing you out, you have a whole team you can talk to. If you close up like how you've been then it'll just cause problems." She calmly told him as she climbed into the drivers seat, "You're not on your own so don't make yourself feel like it. I thought I was someone you talked to-"

"Well not about this." He told her a little too sharply, witnessing the hurt growing across her face. He slammed the bonnet down and made his way around to the back of the car, "It's my problem. Floor the accelerator."

"I could help-"

"No, you really can't Dana. Just push the pedal."

"But-"

"Dana just do it. I don't want to bring you into this crap so forget about it. Now press the pedal."

"Fine!" She slammed her foot down on the accelerator before Carter had time to step away.

A full cloud of thick, black exhaust hit him and as the Rover catapulted forward, he stumbled forward and crashed to the floor, painfully landing in a heap in a pile of dirt. He heard the Rover stop and Dana run over as he forced himself up.

"Are you okay?" She helped him up to his feet with her voice laced in concern.

"Fi-fine. I'm fine."

"Are you sure? I mean-" she stopped as she finally caught a glimpse of his face. A giggle forced itself forward and she attempted to smother it by covering her mouth with her hand but it proved useless.

"What?" Carter snapped. He looked down at his clothes- great, covered in ash and dirt.

"Nothing." Dana said taking her hand away with a small smile playing across her lips, "But I'm not a fan of the face paint." She took hold of his hand, tugging him toward the Rover, "C'mon, let's get that cleaned up then head back to the base; Joel can get the tech seeing as he couldn't be bothered to help us."

Carter allowed her to guide him, more surprised at how Dana had quickly gotten over their argument that had lasted a few hours than what had happened to him. He was also surprised that she had decided to take his hand rather than just walking over- she was tactile at times but this seemed out of place given the argument, not that he was complaining.

Dana reached in through the window and withdrew a bottle of water and grabbed a beach towel. She poured some of the water on the towel then reached up to gently wipe Carter's face. Her brow crinkled in concentration and her tongue poked out the side of her mouth slightly which he found amusing.

"It's not that I don't want to tell you what's wrong," Carter started awkwardly, "I just- can't. Its something I need to work out on my own."

She met his gaze and bit her lip nervously before she responded, "Okay... But if you do need help then you know where to find it."

* * *

Carter was walking toward his room once they got back when a voice called. "How did it go?"

He looked to see Ryan looking at him with an inquisitive glare. "How did what go?"

"Your outing with Dana, duh."

"We're...better."

Ryan came out of his room, leaning on the wall to watch the elder man, "Better as in 'oh yeah, everything is great and now we're together future-brother' or 'still awkward'."

"I told you Ryan, I don't want you involved so please just stop it. It's neither okay? We're just... Better. If I wanted to date your sister, I would-"

"Liar."

"Ryan, seriously now, butt out." Carter went into his room, leaving Ryan to literally bang his head against the wall.

Why.

Did.

People.

Have.

To.

Be.

Stubborn?!

* * *

[A/N]

_**GREG: Hey guys! Another chapter, another set of awkward fluff for the pair. At least they made up this time right? No awkward tiptoeing avoiding each other which I imagine Carter would struggle with... His height and jumper colour would make him definitely stick out in a crowd and I imagine he's not quite as graceful as Dana when it comes to tiptoeing sneakily.**_

**SAM: Yah I imagine Carter would be a clumsy giant- all those limbs and the long jeans can't help, he wears a trip hazard.**

_**GREG: Now look, by this point you must have noticed a pattern? Let us assure you, Ryan's plans don't go all the way up to 'Z' xD we'd get stuck with titles if we did that.**_

**SAM: Yah we're not gonna pull it along that far- just far enough...**

_**GREG: Even though Greg happily would...**_

**SAM: Greg enjoys the torture.**

_**GREG: It's not torture if the people enjoy it- oh well, this took a dark turn...**_

**SAM: Moving on... *gestures wildly***

_**GREG: We're sorry about the delay in posting... We've actually got quite a few chapters in Doc Manager ready to be posted- well, author's notes need to be added but yeah. We try to do one chapter written, one posted but one of us procrastinates a lot *cough* Sam * cough* and the other has been slacking with pushing the other *cough* me *cough* and I've been M.I.A a lot with hospital visits, results and then a few weeks holiday... We're working on writing a part a day - every two days and I'm gonna crack the whip on Sam again.**_

**SAM: I see we haven't moved on from the dark turn *pointed side glance* but yes, procrastination is a synonym of me. But I try, for you guys. And maybe Greg.**

_**GREG: Maybe Greg?! Pft, if it wasn't for me you'd still be on 'What Really Happened When Carter Came To Get Cole'! But in all seriousness, I'll get Sam back to a part every twoish days, at the moment she's only twelve hours behind deadlines which is good for her. :P**_

**SAM: Alright they get it- now onto the chapter!**

_**GREG: Oh yeah, the chapter! Hope you guys enjoyed it!**_

**SAM: Yes, tell us what you thought, we love hearing from you! Remember to fave and follow if you haven't already!**

_**GREG: Also,**_

**_Little Self Promotion,_**

**_We have a one shot album 'Moments That Matter' which we're always accepting requests for. So if you have an idea you would like to see, you can leave it in a review or PM us and we'll get back to you to discuss it!_**

**SAM: Yup, I think that is it...?**

_**GREG: One last thing, we're sorry we don't respond to reviews in Author's notes much now. We do value everything you guys say but because we don't post next chapters as quick as you post, people typically forget what they review. If we see a particular point we want to highlight we do and we pm you to talk about it but it just seems silly with the time gap... We do appreciate everything you say though and take everything into consideration. Thank you to everyone who reviews.**_

**SAM: yup, thanks guys, seriously**

_**GREG: So that's it. Thanks guys!**_

**SAM: We'll catch you posted- ciao!**

_**GREG: Live long and prosper!**_


	10. Plan H- Horrible Backfire

_**Matchmaking Mishaps**_

**What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.**

**CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.**

**Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot. We also do not own any of the Gilmore Girls special guests in this chapter... SPOILERS!**

**[A/N] Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you can not read, we won't take offense with that. :) Also, no flames in regards to Stars Hollow and Mariner Bay crossing over, it's just me being a fangirl, I'm aware they're on complete opposite sides of America!**

_**CHAPTER 10!**_

_**Plan H- Horrible Backfire.**_

Dana sat quietly in the canteen, munching on her cereal whilst rereading a chapter on cancer cells. She'd be leaving soon enough for classes and this was the only quiet time she'd have. She was going to enjoy it while it lasted. It didn't prove to be very long as Ryan slid into the seat opposite her with his plate piled high with pancakes. Dana sighed and shut her book.

"You're up early." She noted with a small smile, "I'm surprised."

"Couldn't sleep." He narrowed his eyes as he studied her face, "Are you sunburnt?"

Her hand flew to her nose and attempted to cover it. "I- ye-yeah, the Rover broke down and-"

"Right." His attention then turned to her cereal, "Are you eating rabbit food? Why?"

"We can't all eat as much sugar as we want without any circumstances."

"Will you help me with my reading tonight?" Ryan asked as he attempted to shove a while pancake in his mouth, spitting bits in Dana's direction...

_Gross._

"I can't, sorry, I kinda have a date tonight-"

"With Carter?!" Ryan almost choked from excitement until Dana shook her head.

She furrowed her brow, "Why would I be on a date with Carter?"

"You just- you use to go place with him a lot before."

"That's not dating Ry. Besides, it's a guy from my course." She told him and stood up, "Lemme get you a few napkins." As she walked off, leaving her cereal unattended, Ryan knew this was his chance.

Dana walked back over and he took the napkins she offered. As she was about to take a seat, her cell phone rang and she hovered, speaking into it. Kelsey walked in as Dana descended into rapid conversation and ran out, babbling about arteries and tendons.

Kelsey spotted the cereal and dived for the food before Ryan had a chance to stop her. "Wha?" She asked, mouth half full, and Ryan shook his head, resisting the urge to face palm. He was sure she'd be fine.

Now he had to look for another opening.

* * *

Dana flopped back into the Rover, completely exhausted from the assault course and evacuation training they had been doing all afternoon.

"Is anyone else really craving ice cream right now?" Kelsey asked as she settled in beside Chad, "'Cause, I could do with a sundae. Not one of those crappy ones you get from Gelat-jos."

"That's my Uncles shop." Joel called forward.

"Well, it sucks." Kelsey bluntly stated which made everyone stare round at her. The Yellow drained of colour and appeared almost mortified. "I didn't mean to... I didn't mean to say that."

"Are you okay Kels? You've been pretty... Funny all day." Dana asked with concern.

Kelsey jumped to the defence, "I have not."

"You've been really... Brutal."

"I don't know what you mean."

"'Wanna be cowboy.""

"'Wanna be Jackie Chan come mermaid'."

"'If you watched your elbow, you wouldn't punch like a girl, demon boy.'"

"'Gigantor.'"

"'Doctor Malibu Barbie.'" Dana finished after each of the Rangers chipped in, "Its not like you."

"Things keep slipping out, like I don't have control..." Kelsey looked to Chad, "it was me who broke your lamp. And Carter, Dana likes-" She covered her mouth quickly whilst Dana looked panicked.

"Okay...?" Carter furrowed his brow, "Are you drunk?" Kelsey shook her head, "Well... Okay. I think I can help with the sundae thing, I know a diner just outta town. We'll go there and you just... Cool down?"

Ryan slumped back in his chair. So the potion does work- But the wrong person?! He'd have to take the chance and try and spike Dana's ice cream.

* * *

The group walked into the diner and Carter led them over to a booth.

"Luke's Diner huh? How'd you come by it?" Joel asked, curious as he took in the interior.

Carter slid in beside Dana and passed the others a menu. "I use to come here as a kid with my parents. The owner is a pretty good friend of mine, gave me free meals for a bit until I had some money come through."

Joel looked toward the counter where a mid-height brunette boy, no older than seventeen at most, was pouring coffee out for another man. The boy had mastered the broody expression and wore dark clothes, clearly not fitting in with the vibe of the colourful diner.

"You shouldn't be friends with children."

Carter looked confused and cast a glance to the counter, "Oh, that's not the owner. That's his nephew, Jess." He turned back to the group, "He's kinda... Trouble." He nodded across the diner to a man in a backwards blue baseball cap and flannel shirt, putting plates down for a pair of elderly women, "That's Luke."

"And whose she?" Dana signalled outside where a woman with long dark, curled hair with porcelain skin in a red dress, leather jacket and knee high boots came bolting from her jeep to the entrance. She practically ran through the diner, throwing herself on a stool.

"Woah, what's the hurry? The bikers coming for you?" Jess remarked.

"Coffee. Suki didn't make coffee. I've had one cup today, not a nice cup." The woman overexaggerately panted, "Dying... Need coffee."

Jess leaned on the counter, holding the pot close teasingly, "Come on Lorelai, someone has to cut you off eventually. Like Luke and flannel, you have an addiction."

Lorelai narrowed her blue eyes, "I'll quit cold turkey tomorrow."

"How long have you been saying that for?"

"Luke!" The woman span in the chair, "he won't give me coffee!"

Luke was now at the Ranger's table, instead of addressing them, he was focused on the scene brewing at the counter.

"With reason. Have decaf."

Lorelai gasped, "Decaf?! Decaf?! That's taboo! Why would I want decaf?! That's like- like- like having pizza without the base; sure, toppings are great but how do you eat them with no foundation?! A house without windows! A sheep without wool! A cow without milk! A duck without- whatever ducks have!"

Luke groaned, "Jess... Just give the crazy lady what she wants, before my brain explodes."

"Ha!" Lorelai span to face the teen, "See!"

Jess placed a cup down and filled it, "I'm an impressionable teenager and you are teaching me about addiction-" he called out the next part to the Rangers, "I want to be good, but look what I'm surrounded by."

Kelsey smirked, "Dinner with a show, what a catch of a place Carter."

"Kelsey." Dana scorned, "Be nice."

"Lunatics. Mad house." Luke muttered under his breath, removing his pad and pen from his back pocket. "And now I'm serving all six Power Rangers," he looked to Carter, "You ever think this town is completely nuts?"

"All the time." The Red answered, "But I tend to ignore that thought."

"Oh really? The one fighting in lycra ignores the madness in this town? Anyway, what do you all want?"

"Just a coffee for me; didn't you say you were having trouble with your truck?"

"Sure, its out back." Luke tossed Carter his keys from his pocket.

Carter passed by the table with the two women, his arm being caught by the larger of the two.

"Is that you Carter? My, how broad you've gotten." The brunette's hand slid up to Carter's bicep, "Doesn't he Babette?"

"He does!" The husky voiced blonde answered, grabbing Carter's other hand, "How are you sugar? You doing okay? We don't see you here often."

"I've been busy with my new job." He answered.

"Of course, in those tight costumes of yours. You know, those remind me of the dancers on broadway."

Carter smiled, aware of his team watching him and biting back their laughter, "Miss Patty, you're so bad."

Miss Patty leaned up and lowered her voice, "Who are those friends of yours?"

"That's my team; Dana, Ryan, Kelsey, Joel and Chad."

Miss Patty's gaze set on Chad, "The one with the intense brown eyes that say 'I've seen a lot, I've been through a lot'-"

"You mean Chad?"

"Chad," She pressed her hand to her heart, "He looks exactly like my fourth husband- or was it my fifth... You know, it could even be the one in between."

"You had a husband in between?"

"No, my lover."

"Well, Chad's probably not your sort- sorry Patty."

"Oh you tease." She tapped his hand flirtaciously.

Babette focused on Dana, "Is the blonde your new girlfriend Carter? Have you been hiding her from us?"

Carter's cheeks burned a bright pink and he stuttered nervously, "N-n-no, that's Dana-"

"You sat down next to her really quick sugar, are you tryna stop the tall, blond, dark stud?"

"That's her brother-"

"Oh..." The pair sounded disappointed, "Right."

"Dana's just a friend- anyway, I should go see the truck." He prised his arms from their grip, "I'll introduce you two to them all later if you're still here."

"Alright sugar." Carter sped out the building so fast that Jess and Luke scoffed in unison, "Such a sweet boy, handsome but nervous." Babette summarised, "He needs a good girlfriend."

"You know, I think I have a picture of him- visual aids to show young girls I meet when I talk about him. Maybe I should resort back to that."

"Miss Patty, leave the boy be!" Luke called over as he returned his attention to the table of Rangers, "And the rest of you? What do you want?"

"Your nephews number."

Everyone turned to Kelsey with surprised expressions.

"What?"

"What he's cute?" Kelsey answered, "Anyway, its not for me, it's for the blonde because she needs to get over Car-" Dana sharply kicked the Raven haired woman in the shin, "Ouch!"

She turned to Luke with a sweet smile, "Coffee and cherry pie would be great thanks. Is it okay to go out and help Carter? He's bound to cut his fingers open."

"Go ahead. Just mind the potatoes by the back-door."

"Why are there potatoes by the back-door?" She naively asked which earned a look from Luke that suggested it was the most obvious answer in the world.

"Where else would you keep potatoes?"

Dana furrowed her brow, "Okay..." She stood and headed out the path Carter had just taken, leaving the rest to place their orders. Ryan reached into his pocket, double checking the vial was still present; he had one last shot at this...

The drinks were brought up first, mainly because the coffee was in a pot at the percolator. Luke brought up three coffees, a herbal tea and two sodas before he moved back over to the woman at the counter- who was still muttering about decaffeinated coffee.

Ryan zoned out on the conversation that the other three were having and looked to the counter where the nephew was openly glaring at him. He kept staring back until the nephew conceded and looked away. He fingered the vial in his pocket, keeping an eye on his teammates whilst casually moving his sister's mug closer. He pulled the glass vial out and slipped off the lid, swiftly pouring its metallic contents into the coffee. Faint wisps of silver floated up before promptly disappearing, leaving behind no trace of the shiny liquid.

Ryan leant back in his chair, ready to watch his beautiful plan unfold when his slice of pie was dumped down in front of him. He followed the arm, which happened to belong to Jess who was scowling at him.

"So what? She turn you down in favour of the big guy so you decide to Roofie her?" The teen sharply spoke.

"Huh?" Ryan tilted his head, "Turn me- what's a Roofie?"

"Spike her drink? Do you do that to all the girls, or just the blondes? Pattern of a serial killer."

"What?"

"The girl, just walked out." Jess pointed the coffee pot to the door, "Blonde, my height. The one you're trying to drug."

" She's my sister-"

"Gross dude. You know that's more illegal than what you're tryna do now?"

"You don't know what you're talking about kid." Joel spoke calmly.

Jess scoffed, "Sure I don't cowboy. I saw it with my own eyes."

Slowly, everyone's attention in the establishment (other than Lorelai's and Luke's who were in a midst of an argument over turkey burgers and their place in society) had turned to Jess and Ryan. Ryan's nerves were growing- he'd spiked the drink so subtly!

"I didn't do anything..." He lied.

"Sure, and do you know in my spare time, I moonlight as a good ol' dandy fifties kid. Gee wilickers sir, that's a mighty fine lie you're tryna spin." He snatched the cup back from the table just as Ryan leaped to move it away from him, "You're sick, you know that?"

"Hey!" Kelsey barked, "Don't say that!"

"But I'm not ill-"

At this point, Dana and Carter re-entered the establishment, Dana being stopped by Babette and Miss Patty whilst Carter returned to the table. The pair began to bombard her with questions and, Dana being Dana, was incapable of rudely walking away and nervously and coyly answered their many questions.

"Woah." Carter sat down in the booth, "What's wrong Jess?"

"Him." Jess grunted, "Keep him under a chain. Ever do that here again and you'll regret it." He returned to the counter, putting the cup down and headed into the kitchen. Lorelai grabbed the cup, mistakenly believing it was for her; she drained it, not knowing what Ryan had slipped in there.

"What happened?" Carter asked, taking up his own coffee.

"That kid just randomly came over here accusing Ryan of roofieing Dana's drink." Joel explained, casting a glare in Jess' direction, "Damn punk."

Carter's gaze dropped to his own coffee before setting on Ryan with a scowl, "Did you spike mine as well?"

"No." Ryan answered earnestly.

"But you spiked Dana's drink?"

"You believe the punk?" Joel asked aggressively to which Carter raised his hand to silence him.

"Did you?"

"With nothing that would hurt her..."

The table groaned in unison and Ryan shrank back in his seat a bit.

"With what Ryan?"

"Just a... Truth thing."

Dana had finally managed to get away from the two women and had returned to the table, not hearing any of Ryan's confession. She sat down next to Carter, leaving such little space between them his attention turned to her. She signalled for him to lean down so she could whisper something to which he obliged.

"Those two ladies were about to try and hook me up with this guy called Dean- they had his picture and everything, and yours actually- and they were gonna try and hook you up with this girl... So, please don't kill me, but I told them we were dating just so they would stop-"

"Thanks." Carter whispered back, even though he had initially told them that they weren't dating, "What stage?"

"Really early stages." She retorted, "Why's everyone yelling at Ryan?"

"He spiked your drink."

"He did what?!" Dana tore her gaze to Ryan, "Why would you spike my drink?!"

"It was only a truth thing!"

Chad's mind clicked into gear, "Did you spike Kelsey?"

"No... Well, not intentionally. I spiked Dana's cereal when she went to get me napkins and then, well Dana ran out droning down the phone about arteries and stuff and Kelsey saw the cereal-"

"That's really disgusting for the record Kels." Joel told the brunette whose anger was flushing through her face.

"So you're the one who always steals my food!" Dana furrowed her brow at the Yellow.

"I didn't have time to get some myself!"

"Why would you want to spike me with a truth potion?" Dana asked her brother, "What do you think I'm lying about?"

"I don't think you're lying about anything! I just think you're hiding something."

"And what am I hiding Ryan?!" Her eyes narrowed down to slits, challenging him into laying his cards on the table. He could out them both, here and then; he likes you, you like him! It was so simple! But if he did that, he'd be the bad guy.

Ryan looked down at his pie, pushing it about the plate with his fork.

"I seriously can't believe you Ryan." She forced herself up sharply and stormed out of the shop, slamming the door behind her which caused the bell to echo out.

"Wo-ah." Lorelai spoke from the counter, "Someone's PMS-ing."

Jess stared at the blue eyed woman, "PMS-ing?"

"C'mon, you're eighteen and you don't know what that means, you are thicker than I thought." Luke stopped walking back to the kitchen with the empty plates and looked between the pair, waiting for Jess to explode.

"No, I know what it means. I just didn't take you to be like that. But by chance, are you PMS-ing?"

Carter watched out of the window as Dana crossed the road, heading in the direction that he thought was the library.

He looked to Joel, "Can you go with her? She's in the sort of state Demon's love."

"You got it." Joel hopped over the back of the booth and jogged out the store, calling out to Dana as he went.

"I don't know what you deem acceptable Demon boy, but-"

"Kelsey." Carter hissed, "You don't talk. Right now you're being so blunt. Stay silent."

Kelsey glared at him, "Oh please, if it was any other member of the team, you wouldn't be so concerned."

"What do you mean?" He stared the Yellow down, but unfortunately Kelsey was rifled up on anger with Ryan and truth potion.

"I'm saying you'd turn a blind eye if it was Joel, Chad or me, but because it's Dana you're concerned!"

"That's not true. I'd care if it was any of us."

"But you care more because it's her. Everyone sees the way you look at her, just get it out the way and fuc-" Chad covered Kelsey's mouth before the last word escaped her lips, everyone in the establishment was staring. Kelsey even looked embarrassed at what she had said.

"Hey Luke!" Lorelai called back, "Got any duct tape there for blabber lips? And for the record, flannel went out of style- though your butt, so perky and cute!"

Carter cut Kelsey down with a glare, "That's not true. I don't think about Dana any different to what I think about any of you." He looked back to Ryan, "Where did Dana's coffee go?"

Ryan's sterling blue eyes slowly moved across to Lorelai, "She drank it."

"Then we better go." Carter threw down a fistful of notes and stood, "Gotta run Luke, emergency. Money's on the table."

The others followed suit as he all but ran to the Rover and had started the engine before the others had even put their belts on.  
"Lorelai and truth would cause the end of the world." He explained as he began to pull out of the parking lot, "Luke's gonna have a field day with that one."

* * *

Joel skidded to a halt as he caught sight of the blonde doubled over on the park bench, with her head in hands. As he approached, he could hear her cussing under her breath which did make him smile as he had yet to hear her swear but also made him soften as he sat beside her.

"That's not like you." He told her and patted her back gently, "You kiss your dad with that mouth?"

"Joel." She scorned with a sideways glare, "Just go away." He caught a glimpse of something in her eyes- was that fear?

"No can do, 'cause I'm a little worried about you... So come on, talk to me."

"No offence Joel, you're not my go-to guy to talk to."

"Some taken, but your go-to is busy defusing a situation between Kelsey and Ryan so-"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Just 'cause I joke about doesn't mean I don't understand things, or that I don't care." He leant forward onto his knees, wringing out his hands in front of him, "I do care."

Dana picked her head up from her hands and took a deep, shakey sigh before she turned to look Joel dead in the eye. "What if he's still helping the demons?"

"Ryan?"

"Yeah. He's always acting- well, strange... And this whole truth spiking thing... What if it was to get some information to send to the demons? He can't get to Dad but he can with me..."

"You can't think like that." Joel told her sympathetically, "If you do, then you'll end up hating him. Don't you think that if he was still working for them, he'd have done this months ago?"

She bit her lip in consideration and nodded, "I suppose so. It's always there in the back of my mind though- I wouldn't think after fourteen years he'd be able to ditch the Demons who brought him up."

"They had been lying to him. In some messed up way, Ryan might believe he's helping you with something. You got a secret?"

"Not anything he knows about."

"You think."

Dana broke into a small smile and corrected herself, "I think."

"C'mon, it's gonna get dark soon." Joel stood up and dug his hands into his pant's pockets, "The streets of Mariner Bay are not safe place for a young lady at night."

"I think I can handle myself." Dana also stood and the pair began to cut through the park, passing the last of families playing in the park, "I think you might be right."

"I always am- but about what?"

"Ryan thinking he's helping."

"Oh that. That's a no brainer really. In his whacked out mind, it adds up." Joel wrapped his arm around Dana's shoulders, "Now, let the Sky Cowboy walk you home, it's an honour really."

Dana giggled and pulled Joel's stretson down to cover his eyes, "For who? You or me?"

"Well, me obviously, until you did that." He adjusted his hat with a playful glare, "Now it's your honour. I also gotta ask," they started down the main road, "I found a note in the garbage in the Rec-Room from Carter, to your Dad... Wanna explain why he was so forward and filthy? I didn't have Carter down as that type."

"It's a long story."

* * *

**[A/N]:**

_**GREG: Hey guys! Sam's back now but she's so jetlagged she asked me to do the Author's Note on my own... Which actually fits because I think I wrote this chapter on my own anyway :0 can't exactly remember because it was written before the summer!**_

_**We're going to try and post bi-weekly again, not necessarily our big stories but at least one shots to try and be better than last year... Oh! Speaking of which!**_

_**HAPPY NEW YEAR! MAY YOUR YEAR BE FULL OF LOVE, HEALTH, HAPPINESS AND SUCCESS! :)**_

_**So, anyway! Thank you for reading! And yes... The characters in the diner are from Gilmore Girls... I'm a big fangirl. I'm also aware that Stars Hollow is no where near where Mariner Bay is (seeing as Stars Hollow is in Connecticut and I'm sure Mariner Bay is meant to be in California) but I was desperate to combine the character together and Sam finally relented. I just think all the personalities will go great! So, don't be angry that it's not canon, it's just me being a fangirl.**_

_**CarterLovesDana;**_

_**I agree, I think they needed to talk it out! I'm glad you liked it!**_

_**Dash Master 48;**_

_**I know we responded to you via inbox, but I'm just highlighting it for other readers :)**_

_**We would love to respond to more reviews but the truth is we don't really get many and the ones we do get either aren't really reviews or we leave it too long to respond to. We're hoping we might start getting more reviews, like suggestions, constructive criticism or anything, soon but in the mean time it's just difficult. We hope you understand! :)**_

_**Mysterious Guest Reviewer;**_

_**Hey! Thank you so much! You're too sweet! :) Dana and Carter are mine too! Sam's added them to her top list now too which I wholeheartedly think is down to me forcing it on her! We saw your suggestion and we are really interested in taking it up! I think Eric and Taylor would make a great one! We did have a one shot in our 12 Days of Christmas which had a little TaylorXEric (I think it's Chapter 12, it's Wes' party) if you wanna have a little preview of what we're planning!**_

_**So! Thank you for reading! We'd love you to review or fave/ follow ;) do you guys think I captured the Gilmore cast well? **_

_**See you really soon! Sam says hey too!**_


	11. Plan I- Intoxication

_**Matchmaking Mishaps**_

**What do you do when two people are so blindly in love that neither are fully aware of it so refuse to take action? Take action into your own hands, just like Ryan knows all about… Or in which Carter conforms and Ryan just can't be asked anymore.**

**CarterXDana/SOAverse/Lightspeed Rescue/ Fluffy, awkwardness and amusement.**

**Disclaimer: We wish we owned it but all rights belong to Saban, we only own the plot.**

**[A/N] Ryan is OOC for entertainment purposes. If you don't like the changes, please don't flame. If you don't like it that much than you haven't got to read, we won't take offense with that. :)**

_**CHAPTER ELEVEN!**_

_**Plan I- Intoxication.**_

"A little to the left." Dana directed Carter from where she stood behind him, her gaze fluttering from the banner he was putting up to where Kelsey and Joel were setting up the drinks table. Chad was on balloon duty with Angela and her father was overseeing the food. So far everything was running smoothly with Ryan still in his room napping.

"How about now?" Carter said looking back over his shoulder at her. She nodded and smiled, "Perfect." She placed a little check down on her list as he came down from the ladder and joined her side, "Oh! Did you get the cake from Luke?"

"Its in my car." He nodded down to the loading dock, "His friend made it, some German White chocolate thing with fresh berries and-" Dana stared at him blankly and he blushed, "She goes a bit over the top."

Dana shook her head with a wide grin, "When you get it just put it by the food."

"Why are Kelsey and Joel putting out alcohol?" The blonde cast a glance back, "For those who want it I suppose. Don't blame me, I didn't organise that part. Once the cake is out, everything is sorted." She closed her notepad and placed it down on the nearest table, "I'll get Ryan and then the show can begin."

"I'll go get the cake." Carter told her then kicked himself for announcing his action. She ignored him however, more concerned with the lie she would have to conjure up to get Ryan to the gallery.

She didn't know what she'd say even as she knocked on his door; however, she was aware he was awake from the noises she heard- it sounded like he was practising reading which brought a proud, almost maternal smile to her face. "Oh, hey Dana." "Hey, were you reading?" She asked in a small attempt to buy herself some time. Ryan looked down at his pillow and grabbed at his neck, "Trying."

Dana smiled at him and sat beside him on the bed, "Sounded like you're getting good at it." She reached for the pillow and pulled out the slim paperback. She studied the cover of 'Matilda', enjoying the bright colours. "I use to love this one," she opened the page and saw her name scribbled inside, "Stop sneaking about in my room Ryan. If you wanted a new book to read, I have a few I can lend you- or I can take you out some from the library." "I finished Aladdin and Peter Pan and Carter said Roald Dahl was a good way to go."

"It is," Dana placed it back, "You've been practising on your own?"

"Yeah... I do want to get better at stuff Sis." He stared down at his feet with disappointment clear in his tone.

Dana wrapped her arms around her brother, resting her cheek to his shoulder, "I know... And you're doing great." She took a moment longer in hugging him before she stood and held her hand to him, "Come with me, I have a surprise for you." He looked at her hand dubiously then glanced back up to her face, "Like what?" he let out, not hiding his doubt. "Like something you wait and see- it's not a surprise if I tell you Ryan." Dana said rolling her eyes, hand still held out. Ryan's eyebrows scrunched together a little more as he took her hand, stood up and followed her out of his room. "Close your eyes," she instructed. Ryan refused for a moment until Dana scowled. When all he could see was darkness, Dana started to walk and guided him. "I won't let you crash into anything." She said reassuringly but Ryan didn't fully trust her with that. She could be getting back at him for his meddling- wait, she didn't know it was him so how could she?

"Just tell me what it is."

"Don't you trust me?"

"Do you want me to answer that honestly?" "Droll. Come on Ry, you can trust me, I'm your sister."

"In some weird world isn't that why I shouldn't trust you?"

"Maybe but I think our sibling relationship falls into a different category- you know, after being apart so long." He shrugged and let her continue to lead him in silence. If his reasoning was right, they were in the corridor on their way to the loading docks.

"Did you get me a car?"

"I don't even have a car yet Ryan."

"I'm older."

"I can actually drive." She stopped suddenly, "Okay, we're here... A few more steps and stop! Okay, open your eyes." Ryan complied and was confused for a moment about why the lights were off before they suddenly turned off and he heard yells of 'Surprise!'. He froze, caught off guard. "What...?" Ryan mumbled, staring at the balloons and the colours. Dana wrapped her arms around her brother's neck and placed a kiss to his cheek which he instantly started to wipe off. "Happy late Birthday." She whispered and squeezed him.

"My birthday was a while ago- I tried to kill you, remember?"

"I know." Dana answered, "But we didn't get to celebrate it, and sixteen years without a birthday party is sad so, surprise!" She unwrapped her arms from around his neck and took a step around, speaking coyly to the floor, "Sorry it's not much."

"Day," Ryan said and she looked up at him. "I haven't celebrated my birthday in sixteen years." He said bluntly. "This...is more than I could ask for. Thanks." He finished quietly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. Ryan stumbled back as Dana suddenly attached herself to his torso, arms encircled around him. He stood there, straight as a board whilst she continued the rather one-sided hug.

Dana pulled back, a slight embarrassment colouring her face at the rejection, and forced a smile, "Angela's working on getting the speakers up so the music will play but for now, come and see your cake. Carter's friend made it for you."

"Cake?" Ryan's eye lit up, "As in cake with candles?"

Dana's expression dropped and she visibly face palmed, "Oh God!"

"What?" "I forgot the candles." She looked around and an idea hit her, "Go get a drink, I'll be back in ten minutes. Go mingle or something!" She bolted off towards the Loading Bay.

Ryan looked around, spotting that everyone now seemed to be gathered around the drinks table with- was that alcohol? Hadn't Joel told him that alcohol made people tell their biggest secrets? A smirk crossed his face; that gave him an idea.

He moved to the alcohol table, noticing that Joel and Kelsey seemed to be particularly generous on their measurements in a couple of cups. Ryan grabbed the nearest bottle, full of a clear liquid with a red and silver label with 'vodka' written on, two paper cups and the strongest tasting fruit juice he could see; grapefruit.  
He poured about a quarter of a cup of vodka in the two glasses and then filled it with the juice. Now he had to just give it to his as Dana had to have rushed out to find candles, it would have to be Carter which made sense as he would probably be the one who would take the longest to feel the effects of the alcohol.

The Red walked past carrying a white, card box which he set down on the empty table a few feet away. Ryan grabbed the two spiked drinks and headed over.

"What's in the box?"

"The cake," Carter said and turned to face Ryan, "Dana said to make sure you didn't look in at it until she was back with candles."

"Are any stores even open right now?"

"I told her to go to the fire station and grab some."

"The Fire Station?"

"The boys there know who she is," Carter shrugged, "She just has to say I sent her, its nearer than driving around town like a maniac."

Ryan raised his eyebrows, "And what happens if a firefighter takes a liking to her?"

Carter furrowed his brow, "Is this like your stupid theory a few weeks back?"

The shorter man glared, "No." Then added rather pointedly, "And it wasn't stupid!"

"You mean if one of the firefighters asks her out?" A smile broke onto Carter's face, "They're not like that."

"As in?"

"As in they don't just-" Carter's expression dropped almost as quickly as if had spread making Ryan realise he had him.

"I'm just saying, she's single, some of them must be single... Apparently she's pretty and well known in town." Ryan handed Carter one of the two drinks, "And they're braver than you because they would ask her out, not make excuses."

Carter stared down to the drink, "What is this?"

"Grapefruit." Ryan answered earnestly, "So, how would you feel if she started dating one of them?"

"Who's dating who?" Kelsey bounded over and knocked into Carter, causing the drink to slip out of his hand and onto the floor, "I'm so sorry!" She said and grabbed a fistful of napkins to start cleaning up the floor, "Here," she passed Carter her drink, "Have mine. I grabbed the wrong mixer anyway- I grabbed lemonade instead of tonic water."

"Thanks?" Carter answered suspiciously and placed the drink down on the table, "And no one-"

"Dana and one of Carter's fire squad."

"Really?" Kelsey bolted up from where she was kneeling on the floor, surprise registered on her face, "She never told me!"

"No-"

"Yeah!"

"She isn't." Carter cut in, "It's something Ryan made up." He then turned to the Titanium, "If Dana chooses to go on a date with any of them, that is her choice. I know them well enough to know they're all respectable guys-" Well... Sort of. A couple preferred casual hook ups to a committed thing and some Carter would definitely not want involved personally with Dana.

"That's not what you're meant to say!" Ryan hissed to Carter.

"It's what I think." Carter retorted, "Excuse me." He walked over to Captain Mitchell, eager to get out of the conversation. Kelsey looked up at the table and groaned; he'd left his drink there.

When Dana rushed back in later, she shooed Ryan away from the cake and began to push the candles into the white chocolate icing. Her hands shaking with nerves which Carter noted from across the room, made an excuse to bow out of the conversation with Captain Mitchell and joined her.

"Here," he took the candles from her and began to arrange them, "You look terrified."

"Do I?" She asked, "I suppose. I just want him to really enjoy the party- but what is up with this cake? Its like a fruit carnival."

Carter chuckled, "Like I said, Luke's friend has a flare for fancy."

"Fancy is an understatement." She joked and began to clean up the cups from around the table, "But seeing as she did it for free I shouldn't complain."

"She's also pushing to make my wedding cake when I get married-"

"Someone is thinking far ahead."

Carter forced a smile and focused to keep his words from becoming tied, "I-it wasn't, at o-one point anyway."

Dana looked to him puzzled, "What do you mean?"

He kept his gaze turned away, "I don't really wa-want to talk ab-bout it. It's meant to be a ha-happy occasion."

"Sorry," she looked into a cup which was almost completely full, "Well, when she does at least you won't have to worry about it being too basic."

"Yeah," he managed a sincere smile, "And one less thing for the wedding bill."

"You could always ask Joel to officiate, another thing less to pay for- whose drink was this?"

Carter looked after he'd finished the last candle, "Mine. Kelsey made it and I don't trust her measurements."

"Great." She spied Joel walking past and handed him the cup, "Hey, do you want this? I don't like lemonade much."

Joel shrugged and took a sip then nodded approvingly, "Thanks."

Dana smiled sweetly back to him then turned to the cake covered in twenty candles, ignoring Carter staring at her in surprise.

"Really?"

"Well I couldn't keep it, my dad wouldn't be thrilled if I was underage drinking. Which reminds me, maybe keep Ryan's drinking discrete." She started to light the candles with a lighter, one that Carter recognised to be from the Firehouse, but caught her wrist on a flame and dropped the lighter as she whipped her hand back from the flame. She winced at the slight pain and Carter bit back a laugh as he fished the lighter out of the frosting.

"I got it," he told her as she fished an ice cube out of a drink to put on the burn then started to light the candles, "Isn't this Joey's?"

"Is that his name? About your height, dark, short hair?"

"Called you Doll?"

"Yeah! I thought that was weird."

"He calls every girl that when he's-" Carter pressed his lips into a tight line. _When he's hitting on them._

"Well, he lent it to me when I realised I didn't have anything to light the candles with. I don't think its a good idea for a Firefighter to smoke considering the inhalation he already experiences."

"I've been trying to get him to quit."

"Anyway, can you take it back for me? He kept asking about going for a drink- if I go back he'll ask again and there's only so many ways to gently let someone down."

"Joey's nice." One of the only boys at the firehouse Carter could approve Dana dating seeing as Joey was basically Carter's closest friend there.

"I'm sure," Dana plopped the ice back in the drink and roughly dried her hands down her skirt, "But I don't know him."

"I think that's the aim of dating someone, you get to know them."

"If you're that keen on him, why don't you date him?"

"Because he's not my type, and I'm definitely not his."

"And what makes you think he might be mine? I think everything is simpler not to date right now anyway; Ryan's only just getting used to everything and to throw another new person into the mix- it might be too much."

Carter had to resist scoffing; seeing as Ryan was pushing to get himself and Dana to date, hard at that, he doubted Ryan would particularly mind Dana dating. It was just an excuse not to.

"I'm going to get Ryan," Dana walked away to find her brother.

Carter pocketed the lighter, pretending that he was completely nonchalant over the fact a colleague of his had shown interest in Dana. He'd have words with Joey- Dana was far too innocent for him.

"You look as white as a ghost," Kelsey's voice came from behind him as she shoved a cup into his hand, "Drink up."

He furrowed his brow at the cup, "Thanks." Now this was suspicious- why were Kelsey and Ryan adamant to keep handing him drinks? Unless...

When Dana appeared with her brother and father in tow, Carter registered she was holding a drink. He waited until the severely off-tune 'Happy Birthday' was being sung to lean down and whisper, "Who gave you that?"

"Joel, why?" She answered in hushed tones.

"Don't drink it," he stated, "They're trying to get us drunk."

Dana rolled her eyes and discreetly switched the cup Joel had put down with her own, "Two can play at that game." She said in a whisper to Carter then turned back to her brother just in time to catch him blowing out his candles.

It didn't take long for both Kelsey and Joel to feel the full extent of the drink swap Dana kept slyly doing. Everytime one of them handed her a drink, she managed to swap it with the other, likewise for most drinks Carter was handed. Within half an hour, Joel was hanging from Chad's neck, swaying with a balloon in his arms with his hat perched on top.

Kelsey was sat in a corner, looking a rather white shade of pale. Dana must have been feeling guilty about how it was affecting the Yellow as she was sat with her, encouraging her to drink water constantly and with a plate of sandwiches for her to eat to soak up the alcohol.

Carter watched the pair from where he stood with Ryan and Captain Mitchell. He supposed he couldn't stop Joey from asking Dana out, he wasn't exactly surprised; she was sweet, beautiful and caring, even when she was trying to get her own back on someone she stopped when they were in trouble- she was one of a kind. It's not like Joey was that bad either; he was definitely better than Carter had been before Lightspeed.

* * *

When the party seemed to be winding down, mainly due to Dana forcing Kelsey to go to bed after she threw up and Joel attempting to get everyone to line dance, Carter decided to head to the fire station. He'd loaded the Rover with left over food- under Dana's request- and some cake then headed over.

The squad had the engines out and were cleaning them down when Carter pulled up. They were too focused on cleaning to notice him, so Carter hit the siren to announce his arrival; they all startled into action but then confusion settled as the siren was different to their usual one. It was the tall brunette with his back to Carter who realised first.

"Well, well, well," he said and turned around to look at the Red, "Look who's back. How's the Lycra treating you?"

"Can't complain." Carter retorted and enveloped his friend in a hug before pulling back, "The girl who was here earlier sent me with some leftovers," he signalled to the backseat covered in tin foil platters, "And this," he dug the lighter out of his pocket and handed it to the brunette.

"And she couldn't deliver herself?"

"One of our team suddenly came over sick." Carter explained, "Something to do with ingesting her body weight in vodka."

"Now she sounds like the life of the party," Joey nodded approvingly and turned to the Fire Squad, "Don't know about you boys, but I'm starving so how about we get back to that after eating? Take those inside and dig in."

Carter couldn't help but chuckle as the men almost simultaneously threw their sponges into buckets in relief and dropped the hoses to trudge over to the Rover to grab the food. He shook hands with the ones who offered, ignoring the soapyness that came with each; he was glad to see them- he loved his team, but these guys were his brothers and he missed spending most days with them, even if it involved running into burning buildings.

"So," Carter began when it was just himself and Joey, who had apparently taken over Carter's role of the Squad leader since he left, left outside, "I heard someone was pushing for a drink with my colleague."

"'My colleague'," Joey mocked with his cheesy smile, "Look at you, all grown up and business like. Did she tell you then?"

"She mentioned it."

"Well, you can't exactly blame me, can you? I'm surprised you haven't asked her yourself."

Carter forced a laugh, not wanting to give anything away to his good friend, especially when he knew Joey would never let him live it down. "She's just a friend." He said before going on to explain, "Her father owns Lightspeed-"

Joey scoffed, "Her dad owns your ass."

"Not quite."

"He owns Lightspeed," he slung his arm around Carter's shoulders, "He owns your ass."

"Yeah, yeah." Carter grabbed a sponge from the floor and pushed it into Joey's broad chest, "Whatever keeps you happy. Anyway, she's nice. What did she say when you asked?"

"Well, she went very awkward and quiet, then she muttered something about having a boyfriend-"

"What?" Carter blurted which earned a suspiciously look from Joey.

"She told me she couldn't because she had a boyfriend- wait, did she lie to spare my feelings? Ouch, right in my ego-"

"No," Carter shook his head, "She wouldn't." Which meant she did have a boyfriend she was keeping quiet... Carter's mind went back to when the Rover broke down off the Highway. She'd been rescheduling a date- had that been-? But surely she would have told Kelsey or...

"You didn't know?" Joey asked and Carter shook his head. "Woah... You know, I had a suspicion it might have been you- 'cause you know, when you visit here you always seem to talk about her-"

"No I don't." Carter cut in defensively which caused Joey's smirk to grow.

"You do. Plus, I know you well enough to know your tells, I went to High School with you for Christ sake. Everyone has seen footage of your fights, it's not a coincidence that every fight, the first person you check on is her-"

"Not true."

"Though she doesn't strike me as your type-"

"Joe."

"Okay, okay." Joey held his hands up in surrender, "You don't like her, which is bull, but okay."

"I like her-"

"See-"

"Just not in the sense you're implying. Did you become in touch with your feelings since I left?"

"I'm just saying! If you had seen your face when I said she had a boyfriend then you'd think the same." Joey patted Carter's shoulder, "I'm sorry you had to find out from me, but if it's any consolation, clearly she's not keen on him that much, whoever it is."

Carter stifled an awkward cough, "I should get back to the base."

"Alright," Joey crossed his arms over his chest, "Good to see you again, you should visit more often."

"Okay Grandma." Carter joked as he climbed into the Rover, "See you around."

Why did it bother him so much that Dana had kept her boyfriend quiet? Was she ashamed of something? He didn't know how to process it all- other than not telling Kelsey or Joel who would surely blurt it out. That didn't explain the knot in Carter's stomach- normally he'd pan it down to anxiety, but this time it seemed different...

Could it be- was it jealousy? No, why would he be jealous? He wanted Dana to be happy.

But still, it was a questionable feeling.

* * *

**[A/N]**

**SAM: Heeey guys, guess who's back? I'll give you a hint- it's not Zordon.**

_**GREG: So! Today is Matchmaking Mishaps' SECOND BIRTHDAY! Aww, our baby is getting old now!**_

**SAM: They grow ups so fast *wipes away a tear***

_**GREG: And speaking of growing up, Ryan's belated birthday party!**_

**SAM: You know by now what we wanna know**

_**GREG: If there is life on Mars?**_

**SAM: Why is the moon made of cheese?**

_**GREG: Why has Joey never been in any other chapters? I like Joey... I mean i'm bias because I invented him but~**_

**SAM: Joey's cool.**

_**GREG: Joey's the best... We will see more of Joey soon, even if I have to force it . .**_

**SAM: And she will.**

_**GREG: Mwuhahaha... Anyway, hope you liked this chapter!**_

**SAM: Yup, hope you enjoyed it.**

_**GREG: And I realise I said in the last chapter we'd try to update biweekly and it's been three weeks but we decided to push it out a bit so we could post on Matchmaking's birthday! We should have also posted B.O.A but again, anniversary!**_

**SAM: So, kinda sorry but not really?**

_**GREG: Yeah, basically that! But, if you're interested, Blade Of Aurora will be the next story to be updated!**_

** SAM: Please check it out- this is all part of the SOAVERSE so see of you can spot the easter eggs!**

_**GREG: Until next time guys! Thanks for reading! Fav, follow and review! :) Buh-bye!**_

**SAM: Ciao!**


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